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Weekend 


FINANCIAL TIMES 


Weekend FT 
Evangelists on the 
radio talk show 



i* 


Raincoats make 
a splash 




SECTION II 


World Business Newsoc 


soaoer 


Japan Tobacco to 
face first damages 
suit from smokers 

The Erst lawsuit brought by smokers against Japan 
Tobacco, the state-owned company that dominates 
the country's cigarette market, has been launched 
(' this week. The action by five Japanese - four smok- 
■ eis and one non-smoker - has created new concerns 
for JT and for the finanrp minis try, which had 
hoped to bolster state revenues by selling much or 
its SI per cent stake later this year. Page 22 

Zhirinovsky Joins R u s sia n presidency race: 

Liberal Democratic party leads 1 V ladimir Zhirin- 
ovsky has announced he will run for the Russian 
presidency in June. The 49-year-old ultra-nationalist 
is the third candidate registered after Communist 
party chief Gennady Zyuganov and President Boris 
Yeltsin. Trading insults. Page 2 

Takeover rumours nft UK market trading 

At the dose of a busy 

FT-Sk lOO bttfsat trading session, the last 

,ta„rtumnui»nin-Tt« of the old tax year, the 

Hourly movements FT-SE 100 index posted a 

3,780 odaw^sc lo ee 306 gain at 3.755.6. leav- 

3.750 ing it only 25.7 below its 

3,740 all-time closing peak and 

_ m A / 36.6 beneath Its record 

3,730 " ‘ intra-day high. Over a 

3,720 —~p \f week which has seen the 

3,7ia -F-- stock maiket buzzing 

3700 J with takeover rumours, 

J the Index has climbed 

3,880 i An'98 4 555 points or 1.5 p® 

_ cent Dealers said they 

3ourca H * J *’ r expect the London mar- 

ket to attract a flurry of programme trade activity 
next week when the big investment institutions 
begin to invest their second quarter new asset allo- 
cations and shift their existing portfolios. Page 19: 
World Stocks, Page 17 

Faulty AW* test causes anguish m Europe: 

Thousands of people who were cleared of having 
the HIV virus that causes Aids will face new checks 
after the withdrawal of a test kit found to be unreli- 
able. The UK Department of Health said a “small 
proportion" were falsely given negative results in 
I .the test manufactured by Chicago-based drug com- 
pany Abbott Laboratories and 40,000 would have to 
be retested. Dutch authorities said 50,000 Dutch peo- 
ple would need to be retested. 

Santer champions Ell on eastern mission: 


WEEKEND APRIL 6/APRIL 7/APRIL S 1996 


pean Union. Bath cotihtries have applied to join the 
EU. Page2 

Fren chma n dies of CJD: A single case of 
Crentzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) comparable to 
those which sparked the recent “mad cow" crisis in 
Britain has been reported in France. The case 
involved a 29-year-old man in Lyon, central France, 
who died in January 1 . Beef crisis. Page 4 

Fokkor, the bankrupt Dutch aircraft maker, said 
that Saab of Sweden and Samsung of South Korea 
had discussed making a joint approach for the com- 
pany. but that they failed to reach agreement and 
ultimately decided not to bid. Page 5 

BET claims "dirty tactics' by RoutoUI: BET. 
the business services group fighting a £1.9bn 
(SLfflra) takeover bid by Rentokil. has complained 
to the Takeover Panel in Britain over what it 
claims are dirty tactics by Us rival. Page 6 

UK stops ostrich fanning schsms: British 
ostrich fanners offered homes to thousands of birds 
stranded in Belgium after the UK government's clo- 
sure of an investment company. Page 22 

Rover, the UK subsidiary of Germany's BMW 
motor vehicle group, has decided to close its 
recently opened car assembly plant at Varna, on 
Bulgaria's Black Sea coast. Page 2 

^fhomwon-CSF of France and G EC- Marconi of the 
UK are to pool their sonar activities in a joint com- 
pany which, with a FFiU.Tbn (5535m) turnover and 
3.500 employees, will be the second largest supplier 
of underwater listening devices after Lockheed Mar- 
tin of the US. Page 5 

The Financial Timaa wW not be pubBahad on Eactar 
Monday, but wffl resume normal pub&cstkm from 
Tuesday. 


Compands In ttb fawns 


Amende Hess 

top Wiggins 

BET 

BMW 

ST 

BWI 

BankBeffije 

Bdton 

Cable and VMretaae 
Cadbury Schweppes 
DsnUer-Dsm 
Dobs Bank 
Deutsche Bank 
Dolphin Peckegkio 
Bye (Wimbledon) 
Erinemtx 
Euotunnel 
Rtffcr 
GEC -Marconi 


Ham farg Ins u r a nce 
Hertand and Wofll 
Henrey NcMa 
Home Counties News 
Hornby 

Jepen Tobacco 
Morgen Stanley 
McAlpirw (ABrecfl 

WuW 

Panther Securtlira 

P ee r eo n 

Retro -Canada 

Baddtt 6 Calrnsi 

Hetfland 

Rent oM 

Rover 

Schrodeni 

SumftonnCorp 

Superacape 

IbomeonCSF 


For nntonwr senrtco and 
other gantnl enqulri** calls 

^Frankfurt 
( 69 ) 15685150 


US jobs rise si 


By NHchad Prowse 

wasiungion 

and Usa Braneten In New York 

Official figures confirming that 
the US economy is becoming 
more robust after a period of 
sluggish growth prompted sharp 
falls in bond prices yesterday in a 
truncated holiday trading ses- 
sion. 

The Labour Department said 
non-farm payroll employment 
rose 140,000 last month against 
economists' projections of a gain 
of only about 60,000. The increase 
was significant because it fol- 
lowed a revised 624,000 gain In 
employment in February - the 
largest for 12 years. 

Some analysts had dismissed 
the February report as an aberra- 
tion and predicted very weak fig- 
ures for March. The solid gain 
last month, following other evi- 
dence of a rebound, indicates the 
US economy is on course for sus- 
tained growth at an annual rate 
of about 2 per cent. 


Deutsche 
Bank lures 
high-tech 
team for 
US move 


By Richard Waters 
in New York 

Deutsche Bank has hired the key 
figures behind Morgan Stanley’s 
high-tech h anking group, a move 
which represents one of the big- 
gest coups yet by, a European 
bank trying to break into the 
investment banking business in 
the US. 

The three people, led by Mr 
Frank Quattrone. have been in 
the forefront of what has proved 
the hottest part or the market for 
Initial public offerings in the US 
in recent months, bringing a 
string or high-tech companies to 
Wall Street. 

Like a number of other Euro- 
pean banks. Deutsche Morgan 
Grenfell the investment banking 
arm of the German bank, has set 
its sights on building a US opera- 
tion by luring established bank- 
ers from Wall Street firms, rather 
than buying a bank outright 

A small group of San Ftancfa- 
co-based banks has risen to prom- 
inence on the wave of public fin- 
ancings for high-tech companies, 
among them Hambrecht & Quist, 
Robertson Stephens and Mont- 
gomery Securities. 

To buy one of these institu- 
tions would be likely to cost 
more than S230m, with some put- 
ting the price of a bank tike H&Q 
at as much as 5600m. 

While refusing to comment on 
the possible price for such an 
acquisition. Mr Carter McLel- 
land. president of Deutsche Bank 
North America, said: “It’s very 
expensive, relative to what this 
costs us." 

Along with Mr George Boutros 
and Mr Bill Brady, who are also 
moving to Deutsche Bank. Mr 
Quattrone will run a new. global 
high-tech banking group with a 
presence in Asia and Europe. Mr 
McLelland said. 

The Deutsche Bank executive 
is himself a former Morgan Stan- 
ley banker, and worked closely 
with Mr Quattrone while running 
its investment banking 
operations In California in the 
mid-1980s. 

Among companies Mr Quat- 
trone’s team have brought to the 
stock market is Netscape, the 
most successful in a range of 
Internet stocks, which Morgan 
Stanley advised alongside local 
bank H&Q. 

The group's revenues at Mor- 
gan Stanley were evenly divided 

between Initial public offerings, 
mergers and acquisitions advice 


Figures spark bond price fall 
as prospect of rate cut fades 


Non-farm payroSa {m*3on) 
118 


The jobless rate edged up to 5.6 
per cent from 5J> per cent in Feb- 
ruary, but remained well below 
the 5JJ per cast rate in January. 

Bond prices tumbled on Wall 
Street as the strong figures 
reinforced a growing conviction 
that the Federal Reserve - the 
US central hank - will not cut 
short-term Interest rates again in 
this economic cycle. Some econo- 
mists now suggest that rate 
increases may be needed later 
this year if the economy contin- 
ues to gain momentum. 

In a shortened trading session, 
the benchmark 30-year bond lost 
IS to end at 88£, and Its yield 
rose to 631 per cent from 6.66 per 
emit at Thursday's close. Shorter- 
dated securities were even harder 
hit, reflecting the pessimism 
about further rate cuts. The stock 


market was closed far the Good 
Friday holiday. 

“Our economy has weathered 
the slow patch of late last year 
and shaken off any lingering - 
effects of the government shut- 
downs and the January bliz- 
zards," said Mr Joseph Stiglitz, 
the chief White House economist 
He predicted sustainable growth 
this year in tine with the Clinton 
administration’s forecast of a 2 2 
per cent gain in gross domestic 
product 

Mr John Lipsky, chief econo- 
mist at Salomon Brothers in New 
York, said the data indicated the 
economy had shifted from decel- 
eration to acceleration. But it 
was too early to judge whether 
this would lead to above-trend 
growth and upward pressure on 
inflation. 



30-yaarMhohmartt, bond yiakf (981 I 
.8.5 ■ 


114 

'1998 • 96 

Source FT ertrt, OatartnMtt '- 

On Wall Street, bond traders 
grumbled about being in the 
office on tiie holiday. “I think it’s 
a tr ibute to Mammon," said Mr 
wmi«m Shea, a vicepresident at 
Nikko Securities In New York. 



to ease 

exchange 

restrictions 


95-; » 


But others said a special trad- 
ing session was necessary given 
file significance of the jobs 

Continued' on Page 22 
Bonds, Page 7 




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President Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary shovel earth around a blossoming white dogwood tree in a planting ceremony at the White House 
to honour US commerce secretary Eton Brown and the 34 others who died in an afr crash near Dubrovnik, Croatia, on Wednesday, ium rmh r 


TjlBtilLU 


By John ThomhHI n Moscow 

Russia is to ease currency 
exchange restrictions signifi- 
cantly, making the rouble frilly 
convertible for foreign trade 
transactions. The move fa a fur- 
ther sign of the government's 
increasing confidence in its eco- 
nomic stabilisation programme. 

The announcement came as 
President Boris Yeltsin revealed 
more details yesterday of sweep- 
ing proposals to reform Russia's 
highly complex tax regime and 
press ahead with economic 
reforms. 

The rouble, a symbol of eco- 
nomic instability following the 
collapse of the Soviet Union, has 
been held within a narrow trad- 
ing band against the dollar since 
last summer. In real terms, it 
has appreciated strongly against 
most leading currencies over the 
past year. 

Mr Sergei Dubinin, the Rus- 
sian central hank governor, said 
yesterday in Paris that within 
the next few months Russia 
would sign article eight of the 
International Monetary Fund's 
charter lifting restrictions on 
payments and transfers for cur- 
rent account transactions. 

The move should assist Rus- 
sian exports, which rose 18 per 
cent to $78bn last year despite 
file strong appreciation of the 
rouble. The convertibility of the 
rouble wfil also help i mp orter s 
finance their operations. 

..But Russian authorities have 
stepped up mea sures to halt Me- 
ga! exports ~oF domestic capital 
and wffl retain tight restrictions 
on foreign capital flows. Foreign 
participation in the government 
debt market is still strictly 
limited. 

Campaigning in southern 
Russia for the June presidential 
election, Mr Yeltsin unveiled 
further details of the govern- 
ment's tax reform agenda, which 
is designed to simplify the tax 
code and encourage more compa- 
nies and individuals to report 


Continued on Page 22 


Fresh setback for 
Cunard as cruise 
liner hits coral reef 


By day Harris in London 
and Agencies 

The Cunard liner Royal Viking 
Sun, crippled when it struck a 
coral reef on Thursday night, was 
towed into the Egyptian Red Sea 
port of Sbarm el-Sheikh last 
eight 

C unar d said the 560 passengers 
had disembarked to await charter 
flights home. For ll of them, it 
was the second premature end to 
a Cunard cruise in five weeks. 
They had been transferred from 
the Sagafiord in February after a 
fire broke out in a generator 
room in the South China Sea. 

In Cunard’s latest mishap, the 
Royal Viking Sun was sailing 
north into the Gulf of Aqaba on 
its way to Jordan when it struck 
a reef in the Strait of Tlran and 
began to take on water. Jorda- 
nian and Egyptian tugs towed it 
to Sharm el-Sheikh. 

Canard said the damaged area 
had been isolated and any water 
inside the ship had been pumped 
out. The company said it was too 
early to discuss the level of com- 
pensation. "Cunard historically 
has been fairly generous." it said. 

The cruise began in Fort 


and was to luree ended at the 
same port in April 29. 

The UK cruise tine's fliture fa 
uncertain because its parent com- 
pany, Trafalgar House, is in the 
process of being bought by 
Kvaeruer. the Norwegian engi- 
neering and shipping group. The 
takeover is due to be declared 
unconditional on April 16. Kvaer- 
ner has not yet announced its 
intentions about Cunard. 

Tbe Gulf of Aqaba incident is 
the third misfortune to befall a 
Cunard liner in less than two 
years. Apart from the Sagafjord 
Ore. passengers on the QE2 com- 
plained in December 1994 that 
extensive refurblshments contin- 
ued during a voyage to New 
York. They were awarded dam- 
ages by a US court. 

Lloyd’s of London shipping 
intelligence unit said the cruise 
ship began taking on water and 
listing after hitting something 
underwater. Pumps expelled the 
water and put the ship back on 
an even keel it said. 

The office of General Sanaa 
Kamal. head of Red Sea port 
operations, said Egyptian navy 
vessels and a search and rescue 
squad were dispatched during 


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FINANCIAL TIMES WEEKEND APRIL 6/APRIL 7/APRIL 8 1996 



NEWS: INTERNATIONAL 


Ceiling put on cost of lamb and other food products as worries about inflation increase 

Athens fears indigestion over Easter prices 


By Kerin Hope In Athens 

Greece’s trade ministry has set 
price ceilings for Iamb and 
other food products to keep 
down the cost of the traditional 
meal for tomorrow week's 
Orthodox Easter - a whole 
spit-roasted lamb and a large 
basket of red-dyed eggs. 

Fears that domestic health 
controls may be inadequate 
have added an extra dimension 
to Greek worries about the 
soaring price of the Easter 
feast on Sunday April 14. 

Lamb prices increased by 50 
per cent last month after poul- 
try and beef sales collapsed 
because of worries about sal- 
monella infection and BSE - 


mad cow disease. Greek house- 
holds consume an estimated 
Im lambs at Easter, while egg 
sales rise tenfold, according to 
retailers’ associations. 

Mr Michalis Chrysohoidis. 
trade minister, said policing of 
several thousand outlets for 
meat and vegetables in the 
Athens area would be stepped 
up during Easter week. Import 
restrictions on lamb and fresh 
produce are being temporarily 
lifted “to keep prices at accept- 
able levels for the holidays." 

The measures are also 
intended to a help curb infla- 
tion, which is causing concern 
among budget planners. Gov- 
ernment officials are delaying 
announcing the March infla- 


tion figures, but independent 
analysts said inflation was 
likely to jump to an annual 
rate of &9 per cent from 8.5 per 
cent in February - more than 
three times the EU average. 

A surge in food prices, which 
make up almost 30 per cent of 
Greece's consumer price bas- 
ket for calculating inflation, is 
blamed for the accelerating 
inflation rate. 

Mrs Anastasia Mavrikis, 
shopping at the central meat 
market in Athens yesterday, 
said: 'Tm looking hard at the 
stamps on the meat to make 
sure it’s local produce, but 
after what's being going on in 
the past few weeks it is diffi- 
cult to trust what you see.” 


The Athens poultry market 
was hit by the collapse last 
week of a large producer, Vok- 
tas. which is suspected of sell- 
ing thousands of chicks 
infected with salmonella to 
other poultry fanners before 
going out of business. There 
are fears, too. that some of the 
35,000 chickens abandoned at 
the company's premises out- 
side Athens may have reached 
the market. 

Sales of beef have fallen by 
more than 60 per cent since 
Greek market inspectors seized 
at least 60 tonnes of British 
beef during raids on cold stor- 
age facilities around Athens. 
Greece imports only small 
quantities of beef from Britain. 


but seizures of undeclared 
meat have fuelled Greek con- 
cern about BSE. 

However. Greece's state vet- 
erinary service yesterday 
called off a week-long strike 
after only 24 hours when the 
government gave in to their 
demand for "danger-money". 
The walk-out had prompted 
fears that illegal lamb imports 
would rise sharply, exposing 
consumers to further health 
risks. 

Mr Theodor os Ananiadis. 
who heads the veterinarians' 
union, said: “We deserve parity 
with other state services, like 
the forest fire service, who get 
paid for working in hazardous 
conditions.'' 


The veterinarians are usu- 
ally on call around the clock in 
the run-up to Easter to prevent 
illegally slaughtered lamb 
reaching the market. In border 
areas they must check ship- 
ments of lamb suspected of 
being smuggled from other 
Balkan countries. 

Customs officials say an ille- 
gal trade in livestock from 
Albania and Bulgaria, where 
veterinary controls are weak, 
expands just before Easter, 
with thousands of lambs being 
driven across the border at 
night, 

They are immediately pro- 
cessed at slaughter-houses in 
northern Greece and sold to 
wholesalers as Greek produce. 


Russian war of 
words inflames 
poll passions 



By John Thornhill in Moscow 

Russia's presidential election 
yesterday burst into life with a 
slanging match between the 
leading candidates after Presi- 
dent Boris Yeltsin suggested 
some of his Communist oppo- 
nents should be in jail. 

Communist leaders reacted 
angrily to a statement by Mr 
Yeltsin, campaigning in the 
southern town of Belgorod, on 
Thursday that it was “an out- 
rage” that three prominent 
leftwing deputies, who sup- 
ported the hardline Commu- 
nist coup in 1991, should be in 
parliament. 

“They should all be sitting in 
another place, say the Sailors' 
Rest [prison]” said Mr Yeltsin. 

Mr Gennady Zyuganov, the 
Communist party presidential 
candidate, who is leading the 
opinion polls, yesterday 
denounced Mr Yeltsin's 
“unprecedented slur”. 


By Vincent Boland in Prague 
and Kester Eddy in Budapest 

Mr Jacques Santer. European 
Commission president, yester- 
day completed a fact-finding 
trip to the Czech Republic and 
Hungary, preaching enthusi- 
asm for the European Union. 
Both countries have applied to 
join the EU. 

In Prague he chided Czechs 
for what he suggested was an 
excessively hard-beaded 
approach to membership, while 
praising their efforts to meet 
the EU’s entry requirements, 
in Budapest he spoke in flow- 
ery terms of Hungary's place 
in "the architecture of Europe 
in the 21st century". 

“I would like to think that 
your country's commitment to 
what we have achieved over 
several decades will show that 
(he [EU] is attractive and 
appealing as well as neces- 
sary." he told a group of politi- 
cians and business executives 
in Prague. 

“I trust that the Czech 
Republic will bring more than 
rational argument to bear in 
its desire to join Europe,” he 
added, referring to the convic- 
tion among many Czechs that 
their place at the centre of 
Europe is not only natural but 
pre-ordained. 

Many Czech business execu- 
tives and bankers believe there 
is still much to be done to har- 
monise the economy with 
Europe before joining the EU. 
but oLhers feel all that remains 


Mr Zyuganov said the presi- 
dent’s attitude showed his con- 
tempt for the Russian constitu- 
tion. which was his own 
“brainchild”. He pointed out 
that one of the three - Mr 
Nikolai Ryzhkov, the former 
Soviet prime minister - had 
been elected in the Belgorod 
region with 65 per cent of the 
vote. 

Mr Ryzhkov, who heads the 
leftist Popular Rule movement, 
is playing a leading part in Mr 
Zyuganov's election ratn pai g n 
ahead of the June 16 poll. He 
demanded an apology from Mr 
Yeltsin for his comments 
which “bordered on threats”. 

“Apparently, I am going to 
be put in prison for once being 
the head of a great government 
- the USSR,” Mr Ryzhkov said. 

Mr Yeltsin, who came to 
power in 1991 after facing 
down the hardline coup, has 
been contrasting his own 
“moderation” with the 


is for the EU to provide a firm 
date for membership. 

Impatience with the absence 
of such a firm date is coupled 
with a lingering suspicion that 
Brussels does not yet treat the 
Czech Republic as an equal. 
Surveys show that Czechs 
favour European “integration” 
but their attitudes to joining 
the EU are more cautious, with 
less than half actively support- 
ing the idea 

‘It won’t help me 
much but it's a 
responsibility for 
the future' 

Czech politicians boast that 
the country currently meets 
four of the five criteria neces- 
sary to participate in economic 
and monetary union, t hanks to 
thrifty fiscal management The 
exception is inflation, which 
refuses to fall much below 8.5 
per cent. 

After a meeting with Mr Vac- 
lav Klaus. Czech prime minis- 
ter, Mr Santer said talks on 
expanding the EU to include 
countries from central and 
eastern Europe would be com- 
pleted by the year 2000 if every 
applicant country were as 
ready as the Czech Republic. 

In Budapest. Mr Santer 
praised the Hungarian govern- 
ment's “consistent, firm atti- 
tude” and the “substantial 
results” it had achieved. 


“extremist” policies pursued 
by the Communists. Yet, ironi- 
cally. he has also promised to 
implement many of the popu- 
list policies advocated by Mr 
Zyuganov. 

The latest opinion polls sug- 
gest that Mr Yeltsin's cam- 
paign, which receives blanket 
coverage on television, may be 
working and that he has 
almost closed the gap on Mr 
Zyuganov. 

Russia's moribund stock 


though he said more remained 
to be done. He implied that 
Hungary would be among the 
first countries to have its appli- 
cation for EU membership con- 
sidered. 

At a joint press conference 
with Mr Santer. Hungarian 
premier Gyula Horn backed 
the individual assessment of 
candidates for EU entry and 
said the provisional timetable 
for membership negotiations 
was important for maintaining 
foreign investors' confidence. 

He said the government 
would launch a “communica- 
tions programme” of publica- 
tions. films and conferences to 
highlight the benefits of EU 
membership. 

Such a programme may be 
timely in a country where, as 
one political consultant said, 
most people were uninformed 
as to what membership meant 
and that no one had any idea 
as to how it would affect their 
lives, apart from freedom of 

movement. 

Outside the press conference, 
most people seemed to support 
EU entry. One pensioner said it 
was desirable in view of the 
“critical situation” which 
would arise if the communists 
won the June presidential elec- 
tion. 

A taxi driver in a Lada 
reflected the common view of 
Hungary being central to 
Europe. “The sooner the bet- 
ter.” he said. “It won't help me 
much but it’s a responsibility 
for the future.” 


market has also shown signs of 
life this week as foreign inves- 
tors appear to be growing more 
confident of a Yeltsin victory. 

But the continued fighting in 
the breakaway region of Che- 
chnya still dogs Mr Yeltsin’s 

camp ai g n 

The Interfax news agency 
reported that 30 Russian sol- 
diers had been killed in recent 
fighting near the southern vil- 
lage of Goiskoye despite Mr 
Yeltsin's declaration of a uni- 


By Anthony Robinson, 
recently in Varna 

Rover, the UK subsidiary of 
Germany’s BMW motor vehicle 
group, has decided to close its 
recently opened car assembly 
plant at Varna, on Bulgaria's 
Black Sea coast, citing a worse 
than expected economic cli- 
mate and lack of support from 
the socialist government 

Mr Vincent Hammersley, a 
Rover official, said the plant 
would close at the end of May 
after selling only 200 of the 
2.200 Maestro cars and vans 
imported in painted chassis 
form from its Cowley plant 
near Oxford in England and 
assembled in a converted die- 
sel engine plant in Varna after 
a 22-day voyage. 

Rover has spent 520m on the 
project which was opened by 
President Zhelyu Zhelev in 
September. 

The project - a joint venture 
with the Daru group, which 
distributes BMW cars in Bul- 
garia and owns banks and 
insurance companies - was 
conceived as a flexible, low- 
cost plant capable of serving 
Bulgaria and export markets in 
the Black Sea region and 
beyond. 

The deal took more than 
three years to put together and 
finally came into operation 
under a socialist administra- 
tion elected in December 1994. 


lateral ceasefire last Sunday. 

Mr Yeltsin's plans to visit 
China on April 24 also received 
a setback yesterday after the 
head of the Russian deleg a ti on 
trying to settle outs tandin g 
bonier disputes resigned. 

General Valery Rozov said 
Moscow's plans to give np 
lands around the Tumen river, 
south of Vladivostok, giving 
China access to the Sea of 
Japan ran against Russia’s 
national interests. 


The new government, heade d 
by Mr Zhan Videnov, did not 
feel obliged to fulfil earlier 
promises that the plant would 
benefit from tax advantages 
and substantial government 
orders. Rover was particularly 
incensed about a 10 per cent 
tax on its imported diesel 
engines. 

In the meantime. Rover’s 
local partner, Daru, which 
bolds a 49 per cent stake in the 
venture, suffered financial dif- 
ficulties. Last month the 
National Bank of Bulgaria took 
over the Daru-owned Vrtosha 
Bank for Agricultural Credit to 
protect depositors. The bank is 
one of dozens of loss-making 
Bulgarian banks facing closure 
or consolidation. 

But local bankers believe 
Rover, which paid its 127- 
strong workforce £90-£100 a 
month to produce 105 cars a 
week, made two strategic mis- 
takes. It introduced the wrong 
model, the obsolete Maestro, 
and charged too high a price 
forth 

There may be a market for 
cheap, old-fashioned cars in 
eastern Europe. But there is 
not a market for expensive, 
old-fashioned cars. 

Lads, the Russian manufac- 
turer of cheap Fiat and own- 
model care, cut its already low 
prices on the Bulgarian market 
to fend off the expected compe- 
tition from Rover. 


Bank chief 
accuses 
Belgrade 
over IMF 

By Laura Skber In Belgrade 

The governor of the Yugoslav 
National Uantf hiK blamed bis 
own government for blocking 
ramp Yugoslavia's member- 
ship of the International Mon- 
etary Fund. 

Mr Dragoslav Avramovic 
said that an argument over 
whether Yugoslavia - now 
comprising only Serbia and 
Montenegro - was named as 
the sole successor to the for- 
mer communist federation of 
six republics or one of five suc- 
cessor states stymied negotia- 
tions last week in Paris with 
the World Bank, the Interna- 
tional Finance Corporation 
and the IMF. 

Mr Avramovic said the IMF 
would offer membership and 
support, with no political con- 
ditions, if Belgrade signed as a 
successor state. 

President Slobodan Milos- 
evic of Serbia claims Yugo- 
slavia never ceased to exist, as 
Slovenia and Croatia seceded 
illegally in June 1991. 

In 1991 Belgrade accepted a 
formula for the division of the 
c o u n tr y ’s assets and liabilities 
which gave 3&5 per cent to 
Serbia. and Montenegro. It is 
estimated about S2bu of gold 
and hard currency assets of 
former Yugoslavia are frozen 
around the world. - 
But Belgrade last month 
reversed its position, with a 
view to securing its claim to 
be sole successor state. It 
started legal action in the 
High Court in London to block 
a deal between Slovenia and 
the London Club of commer- 
cial banks which would have 
enabled Slovenia to start pay- 
ing its share (18 pm- cent) of 
the total $4.2bn of former 
Yugoslav debt 
Mr Avramovic criticised the 
legal action, saying he hoped 
it could be resolved in meet- 
ings next wed in the US. "We 
should get the Slovenia prob- 
lem off tiie agenda and solve it 
among ourselves.” 

With the disintegration of 
Yugoslavia in 1991, Serbia lost 
its membership in all interna- 
tional organisations. Slovenia, 
Croatia, Bosnia-Hercegovina 
and Macedonia - the other 
four republics - have since 
been admitted. 

Untfl last year Belgrade was 
subjected to UN sanctions over 
the vf olent partition of Bosnia. 
By endorsing the Dayton peace 
agreement In November, Mr 
Milosevic opened the way for 
restoring Yugoslavia to the 
international community. 

Mr Avramovic said Yugo- 
slavia owed 5104m to the IMF, 
$1.75bn to the World Bank and 
8114m to the £FC. "We could 
receive a new loan before 
repaying the old ones,” be 
said. "But, if we do not Join, 
we wont get anything.” 


Santer champions EU 
on his eastern mission 


Rover to close 
Bulgarian plant 
after poor sales 


Hungary sold short by black market 


THE FINANCIAL TIMES 
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B usiness has been brisk 
this week among the 
hundreds of vendors 
selling goods illegally In Buda- 
pest's many street markets, as 
Hungarians buy Easter eggs at 
a huge discount to prices in 
the shops. 

Cuts in welfare payments 
and real wages last year mean 
that many poorer Hungarians 
depend on cheap purchases In 
the black market, helping to 
sustain the country’s rampant 
black economy which is esti- 
mated at 30 per cent of gross 
domestic product 
A report commissioned by 
the prime minister's office 
found that purchases in the 
black market accounted for 
17-25 per cent of the average 
family's total expenditure and 
about 9 per cent or food sales. 

This is estimated to cost the 
state up to FtlQObn (S690m> in 
lost taxes a year. UN customs 


officers estimate smuggling is 
costing the cash-strapped state 
about half of potential customs 
and excise revenues. 

Economists believe the paral- 
lel economy is also strong in 
the construction industry and 
in health: tips or bribes are 
often necessary to secure medi- 
cal treatment, even though 
most healthcare is supposed to 
be free. 

Other big problems are 
trademark and copyright abuse 
and counterfeiting. 

Companies in all sectors of 

the economy are suspected of 
hiring labour illegally and of 
tax evasion. Many transactions 
go unrecorded in what is still a 
largely cash economy. 

"What we really mean when 
we say the black economy 
accounts for 30 per cent of GDP 
is that companies work 70 per 
cent legally and 30 per cent 
illegally.” says a Budapest law- 


yer. “With this country's taxes 
and bureaucracy, no one would 
make any money otherwise." 

After losing billions of 
forints in annual tax revenues 
for years and with the popula- 
tion increasingly sensitive to 
the sharp post-communist 
increase in crime, the govern- 
ment is attempting a high-pro- 
file crackdown on the black 
economy. 

T he campaign is popular 
with many Hungarians 
- confidence in the pub- 
lic sector has been rocked by 
corruption scandals involving 
state employees. After decades 
of enforced egalitarianism, 
many also resent the ostenta- 
tious entrepreneurial class that 
has emerged with the transi- 
tion to a market economy. 

Many have mixed feelings. A 
pensioner buying black market 
Easter eggs for his three grand- 


children - “they are 30 or 40 
per cent cheaper than in the 
shops, as are most things 
here", he says - also supports 
the clampdown on the black 
economy, partly because he 
was driven out of business as a 
fruit and vegetable producer 
by illegal traders who und erent 
his prices by not paying taxes. 

"I know it’s ridiculous but 
despite everything that has 
happened, I still come here to 
buy groceries on the black 
market” he says. “I don't have 
any choice - it’s the only way I 
ran manage.” 

The business community 
argues that if state spending 
was cut further, then taxes 
could be lowered, encouraging 
more Hungarians to comply 
with the law. 

Hungary already has one of 
the world’s heaviest tax bur- 
dens. In addition, according to 
a report published last month 


by accountants KPMG, the tax 
re gimp changes too frequently, 
is overcomplicated and some- 
times is poorly drafted, which 
makes control more difficult 
and leads to high levels of mis- 
interpretation. 

“I just cant keep up with ah 
the changes and notthw can 
my accountant” says an entre- 
preneur with a flourishing 
music business who admits 
hiring illegal immigrants and 

dodging taxes. 

“I started this company with 
S100. There's no way I would 
have been successful if I had 
done everything legally, and 
that goes for the thousands of 
other small businesses set up 
in the last decade. The govern- 
ment should remember that 
unemployment and the econ- 
omy as a whole would be 
worse off without us.” 

Virginia Marsh 


INTERNATIONAL NEWS^jGEST 

Daimler chiefs 
in profits probe 

The Stuttgart public prosecutor is investigating several 
managers and members of the supervisory board or 
Daimler-Benz for possible infringements against the law 
governing public limited companies- 
The prosecutor’s office confirmed yesterday it was following 

up plaints from a shareholders' group against Mr Edzard 

Reuter, Daimler’s former managing board chairman: Mr 
Jfireen Schrempp, present chairman of Daimler-Benz: and Mr 
HUmar Hopper, head of the Daimler supervisors’ board and 
chairman of Deutsche Bank. . 

In Februarv Mr Jochen Knoesel. a representative of the 
Wfirzburg association for the promotion of shareholder 
democracy, filed a suit against the three managers alleging 
they had deliberately presented a false picture of Daimler's 
profit position last year. . 

Incorrect presentation of a company s position by its fop 
management can be punished by up to three years in jnu. The 
nub of the shareholders' complaint was that early last year Mr 
Reuter forecast a rising net profit for 1995. A few weeks later 
Mr Schrempp predicted a loss of DMl.5bn ($lbn). This week 
Daimler disclosed that the 1995 loss amounted to DM5.7bn. 

The Daimler-Benz group, which in February said it was 
untro ubled by the shareholders' more, did not comment on 
the latest development. Peter Norman, Barm 

Daiwa manager pleads guilty 

The manager of Daiwa Bank's New York branch pleaded 
guilty on Thursday to one charge of helping to hide the SLlbn 
of losses run up by one of the bank's traders. In comments 
mad!* in court in New York, he suggested that officials of 
Japan’s ministry of finance had put pressure on the bank not 
to disclose the losses to the US authorities earlier. 

The plea agreement follows Daiwa 's decision last month to 
plead guilty to charges over the cover-up. and to pay a fine of 
$340m. The trader. Mr Toshihide iguchi, also reached a plea 
agreement and is due to be sentenced on April 15. 

Mr Masabiro Tsuda. the only other bank official named In 
US charges, said in court he had been under orders from his 
superiors in Japan not to disclose the trading losses to the US 
authorities immediately. Also, he said, ministry of finance 
officials had warned him that to reveal the losses earlier 
“would be disastrous for the Japanese economy”. 

Mr Iguchi revealed the losses to Daiwa executives in July 
last year but they were not disclosed to the US banking 
regulators until September. Richard Waters. Nac York 

Belgian ex-minister sentenced 

Mr Guy Coeme, former Belgian defence minister, and seven 
associates were yesterday found guilty of fraud and abuse of 
public office. 

Mr Coeme was given a two-year suspended jail sentence and 
ordered to repay sums he illegally received from a political 
research company. He was also stripped of his civil and 
political rights for five years, throwing into question his 
position as an MP and mayor of the town of Waremme. The 
other defendants were given suspended sentences. Mr Coeme 
said he would appeal to the European Court of Human Rights. 

Mr Coeme, defence minister in 1988, is also implicated in an 
inquiry into kickbacks said to have been paid by Agusta of 
Italy to Belgium's French- and Dutch-speaking socialist parties 
to secure an order for 46 helicopters. The inquiry forced Mr «. 
Coeme to quit the government In 1994. Reuter, Brussels 

Arms control talks break down 

Talks in Vienna aimed at establishing a new regimen hm.it 
the supply of arms and military technology to “paring ' v 
regimes have broken down after disagreements between the 
US and Russia. 

The breakdown of the talks, grouping 31 western and former 
communist nations, was a blow to US hopes of curbing the 
military ambitions of such countries as Libya, Iran, Iraq, Cuba 
and North Korea. Negotiations will resume in July. 

Russia, an established supplier of arms to all those 
countries, agreed last December to join a new military 
technology regime whose members would swap information 
about exports of weapons and “dual-use" equipment. The new 
regime is intended to be a successor to Cocom, the cold-war 
arrangement by which western countries sought to avoid 
exporting anything that could enhance the technology of their 
adversaries. 

However, both Russia and France are wary of the latest US 
efforts to regulate the international arms market, arguing that 
Washington may simply be trying to consolidate its 
commercial position. Bruce Clark, Diplomatic Correspondent 

Bonino caught in Somali fighting 

A top European official was caught np in two shooting 
incidents in south-east Somalia yesterday as clan fighting 
raged in the city of Kismayo. At least 75 people were reported 
killed. A convoy in which Ms Emma Bonino, European 
commissioner for humanitarian affairs, was travelling was 
twice forced to stop when militia escorts opened fire against a 
smaller rival group. The Italian politician and her party, in 
Somalia to review relief efforts firnded by the EU, left Kismayo 
aboard a Belgian air force transport aircraft. 

At least 40 militiaman and 35 ci vilians were killati in the 
intra-clan warfare which erupted suddenly in the city on 
Thursday and continued yesterday. Reuser. Kismayo. 

Liquidators at Latvian bank 

Latvia’s cental bank has called in the liquidators at Rank 
Baltija after reconstruction plans for the biggest bank in the 
Baltic region broke down. It is believed the bank owes 150,000 
creditors more than $400m. Its collapse briefly threatened to 
undermine the financial system. About 20 per cent of Latvia's 
citizens had an account at Baltija, as well as 20,000 companies. 

Deloitte & Touche, the international accounting firm which 
helped, trace the assets of the failed BCCI h ank, is to 
investigate the causes of Baltija's failure and salvage what 
assets it can. Latvia has recently adopted new bankruptcy 
laws to enable failed financial institutions to be more 
effectively liquidated. John Thornhill. Moscow 

Tokyo set to lift telecoms curbs 

Hie J apanese government has announced it is ready to lift 
restrictions on foreign participation in the country’s 
telecommunications sector. 

The decision comes ahead of a month-end deadline for 
completion of negotiations by the World Trade Organisation’s 
group on telecommunications. Mr Ichiro Hlno, Japan's 
minister of posts and telecommunications, said: “I believe 
Japan should play a major role to ensure that these 
negotiations are brought to a successful conclusion.” 

He said it was time Japan increased transparency in the 
sector, adding that Tokyo would lift restrictions currently 
l i miting foreign ownership and foreign board members to no 
more than a third of the total in telecommunication 
businesses on condition that other 1 partin g countries also 
liberalised their markets. Emiko Terazono, Tokyo 

German slowdown continues 

The German economy slowed further in February, according 
to pre limin ary figures released by the economics minis try 
which showed a 1.6 per cent drop in indus trial production 
from a month earlier. More reliable statistics, which compared 
January and February with the two previous months, showed 
al per cent foil in industrial production, the ministry said. 

The construction sector was hardest hit. with production 
felling 8.5 per cent, in part because of the bitter winter. 

Hopes for a recovay were dented by a report from the Ifb 
economics institute which showed companies were planning 
farther production cuts. The institute forecast that industrial 
product! cm would fen by about 2 per cent this year compared 
with 1935. Michael Latdemam. Bam 


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FINANCIAL TIMES WPPv c\ir» » __ 

WEEKEND APRIL 6/APRIL 7/APRIL 8 1996 


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NEWS: INTERNATIONAL 


Airbus set Devotees of a faded dynasty desert Congress 

■4-Vw v-wtwm. !*• Mark Nicholson examines the rf the workers. 

lO Vf 111 ill O' election prospects for India’s ruling 

party, no longer able to call on the and 13 nmniIlg 

• -« JNenru tamiiy name or its traditional gf^H Bareu's hotel. He returned t 

I hillO Haq I coalition of rich and poor supporters 

^■ r .m. A lone on the Sleenv tntenxf nm" he mot “Pstn. rnr D^I.^ nn -> hod in snol 


■ By David Buchan in Pans 

C hina is expected to place a 
substantial order Tor Airbus 
airliners when its prime minis- 
ter, Mr Li Peng, visits the 
European aircraft consortium's 
headquarters in Toulouse next 
Friday. 

He will be making a visit to 
France that will also take him 
to the ElysSe for a lunch meet- 
ing with President Jacques 
Chirac, 

The Airbus concern in Toul- 
ouse would not yesterday con- 
'fflflrm reports of an Impending 
' Chinese order for A320 aircraft 
But it said an order was “plau- 
sible’* given that the 150-seat 
' A320 suited China’s current 
needs and that Beijing was 
expected shortly to renew air- 
craft purchases. 

.For the past year, Beijing 
has stopped. Chinese airlines 
from buying more aircraft to 
let the country’s air transport 
infrastructure expand to cope 
with aircraft already bought 

Several Chinese airlines 
operate Airbases, for which 
some Chinese manufacturers 
make some parts. 

But Airbus has only 7 per 
cent of the Chinese aircraft 
market, compared with its 90 
per cent share of the world 
market. 

An indication that China 
may switch some aircraft pur- 


chases from the US to Europe 
came last month when Mrs Wu 
Yi, trade minister, postponed a 
trip to the US. shortly after the 
Clinton administration threat- 
ened action against China for 
infringing intellectual property 
rights. 

Mr Li has postponed visits 
this month to the Netherlands 
and Luxembourg but Is press- 
ing on with his trip to France 
from April 10 to 12. 

Mr Chirac has invited the 
Chinese prime minister for 
talks and hmch next Thursday, 
the Elysee announced yester- 
day. 

Amnesty Internati onal, the 
huma n rights group, yesterday 
appealed to the 100 top French 
companies to take account of 
China’s human rights abuses 
when doing business with the 
country. 

Foreign companies might 
regard China as “an economic 
Eldorado”, but should not 
remain blind to its denial of 
political and religious liberty, 
torture and arbitrary use of the 
death penalty, it said. 

France is hoping other con- 
tracts. including ones in gas 
and steel, win be signed during 
Mr U’s visit 

Mr Chen Jlnhua, head of Chi- 
na's state planning commis- 
sion, held preparatory discus- 
sions with Fr ench ministers in 
Paris this week. 


A lone on the sleepy 
verandah of the Con- 
gress party building in 
| Rae Bareli, headquarters for 
i Mrs Indira Gandhi's three 
I sweeping election victories 
between 1967 and 1980, a low- 
caste woman lies asleep by her 
broom. little stirs i^de the 
chipped ochre walls besides a 
calendar icon of a Hindi god- 
dess of power, flapped by a 
ceiling fen in the bme office of 
Mr G P Shukla, Congress 
worker in 1967, devotee of the 
Nehrn-Gandhi family since 
Mr KhnWa a. frail, toothless 
76. but still, he says, Rae Bare- 
li’s Congress organising secre- 
tary, curls on a battered couch 
beside an old painting of Rae 
Bareli’s departed goddess of 
power. Indira. “Since the Neb- 
ru- Gandhi family shows no 





Political extremes 
dance on dark 
side of the moon 

Revolutionary left and right in US 
Sometimes share anarchic hatreds 



interest here,’ he says, “Con- 
gress is ruined. If the family 
ignores this area for another 
five years, it will be too late.” 

With India’s general election 
three weeks away, Rae Bareli 
is again in the spotlight 

Rae Bareli became the politi- 
cal heartland of Congress, then 
the dynastic property of the 
family of Jawaharlal Nehru, 
India’s first prime minister and 
Indira’s father, after Feroze 
Gandhi, Indira’s husband, wan 
the seat in the 1950s. Mrs 
Gandhi, as prime minister, 
later dominated the seat from 
1967, rewarding the town’s 
poor voters with a lavish rail- 
way station, factories and 
some of the best roads in Uttar 
Pradesh. 

Today Indira’s roads are 
crumbling - along with the 
Congress hold on Rae Bareli 
The seat is now one of just five 
Congress holds in Uttar Prad- 
esh, Lidia’s biggest state. UP 
sends 85 MPs to New Delhi. 
But in this state, as in other 
populous northern states com- 
prising India’s “Hindi belt", 
the party which has governed 
India for all but four years 
since independence has not 
survived the Merging farces 
of Indian politics. Its electoral 
hopes rest an holding seats in 
southern, north-eastern and 
perhaps western states. 

In the north, the assertive 
Hindu nationalist Bharatiya 
Janata Party (51 seats in UP in 
1991) rose in the late 1980s to 
tap the religions frustrations 


if '.' ■ -j'Aii ■- - . if 


f-xVt-ttv.T 


•• i . : 







Prime Minister Rao garlanded at an election rally yesterday. He is expected to lose his majority ap 


which peaked with the 1992 
mass demolition of the Babri 
Maqjid mosque at Ayodhya, 
lOOkms north of Rae Bareli. 
Moslems, perhaps 14 per cent 
of UP's population, felt the 
Congress government looked 
on complidtously as Hindu 
zealots smashed the mosque, 
and have since abandoned the 
party. 

Meanwhile, the rise in north 
India of populist caste-based 
parties appealing to the com- 
plex strata of low and “back- 
ward” castes which d omina te 
agrarian north India has fur- 


ther weakened Congress. 

The old Congress voting 
coalition of upper-caste Hin- 
dus. Moslems and Dalits - 
once known as untouchables - 
has collapsed. “Congress has 
deceived us,” says Mr Ahmed 
Nehaluddin, president of the 
Indian Moslem Forum. “They 
treated us like servants and 
gave us no influence.” In a 
dusty, mud-walled Dalit village 
25kms from Rae Bareli, lower- 
caste villagers are also disillu- 
sioned. “Congress chances are 
slim,” says Mr Ram Dayal, a 
village leader. “Their earlier 


leaders are dead, the new lead- 
ers are all gangsters.” 

And in Rae Bareli the party 
is demoralised. On the floor of 
a second Congress office, a 
dozen party workers sit grum- 
bling that Mr Vikram Raul, 
who is linked to the Gandhi 
family and is the Congress can- 
didate for the seat, is unknown 
in the area and has visited It 
only three times in the last six 
months. The BJP candidate. 
Mr Ashok Sin g h, they say, is 
popular and well-known. “It 
will not be easy, we could 
lose,” says Mr Raday Ram, one 


of the workers. 

Mr Raul, meanwhile, nas 
eschewed both Congress offices 
and is running' bis campaign 
from the comfort of Rae 
Bareli’s hotel. He returned to 
India only last year after more 
than a decade dealing in “com- 
modities” in the Gulf and the 
UK- Perched on a bed in spot- 
less white traditional kadi 
clothing and new Reeboks, he 
says he is not a politician, but 
was asked to stand for the seat 
out of “family duty”. 

But Mr Haul's links with the 
Nehru -Gandhi family are atten- 
uated. Mr Shukla fears they 
will not be enough. Mr 
P V Narasimha Rao, the Con- 
gress prime minister, opened 
his election campaign last 
month in neighbouring Ame- 
thi, seat of the late Rajiv 
Gandhi, portraying himself as 
the inheritor of the Nehru- 
Gandhi tradition. He drew 
15,000 people. Mr Shukla, who 
chuckles at mention of Mr Rao. 
recalls Indira drawing 150.000. 

Mr Shukla's fond dream is 
that Mrs Sonia Gandhi, Rajiv's 
Italian-born widow, or perhaps 
one of her two children, should 
stand in Rae Bareli or Amethi. 
to revive family and Congress 
fortunes. But she remains 
aloof. And Mr Rao, for all his 
campaigning invocations in 
Amethi, has generally done 
more to curb than to coax any 
residual Nehru -Gandhi dynas- 
tic ambitions in Indian politics. 

“Mr Rao has surrendered 
this place,” says Mr Shukla, 
who confesses he would today 
rather vote for Mr Atai 
Vajpayee, the more charis- 
matic leader of the BJP stand- 
ing in Lucknow. UP's state 
capital. Unlike Indira, the 
“mother of India", he says, “Mr 
Rao has a very negative image 
- like a stepfather." 


Court crackdown on dubious campaign funds 


I t is tempting simply to say 
of Ted Kaczymki - who is 
suspected by the FBI of 
being the ‘xitorious Unabom- 
ber - that one of the last of the 
1960s leftwing radicals has 
finally been brought to ground 
after 18 yearn on the run. . 

But it may also be observed 
that cm the dark side of the 
revolutionary moon strange 
forces meet, sharing little by 
way of comprehensible ideol- 
ogy but equally imbued with 
an anarchic hatred of author- 
ity and what they see as the 
de-hum anising effect of mod- 
ern technology. 

just 200 miles away in the 
same state of Montana where 
Mr Kaczyrtskl was appre- 
hended in his hand-made 
shack, about 20 self-styled 
“Freemen" are holed up in a 
farm - under discreet siege by 
law officers determined to 
avoid at all costs the bloody 
denouement of Waco. 

But their beliefs, which may 
be conventionally classified on 
the far right of the political 
spectrum, do not, when 
stripped of their virulent 
anti-semitism and racism, 
seem so far removed from 
-.)hose expressed by the Una- 
bomber in the 37,000- word 
manifesto published under 
duress by several newspapers 
last year. 

Nor are they much different 
from those attributed to Timo- 
thy McVeigh, about to stand 
trial for last year's bombing of 
the federal building in Okla- 
homa City which cost 169 lives, 
and of some of the rightwing 
militia among whom he 
moved; nor of the two white 

soldiers who shocked that mod- 
ern paragon of non-discrimina- 
tion, the US Army, by going on 
an off-duty shooting spree 
against blacks in Fayetteville. 
North Carolina, last December. 

The can be made, there- 
fore, that domestic terrorism 
has merely moved from being 
the preserve of the old far left 
to the new distant right. They 
are linked also, if oddly, by 
technological competence - 
the Unabomber’s explosive 
devices were perverse works of 
art. while the Freemens' com- 
puter-designed money orders 
and legal documents were good 
enough to fool banks and busi- 
nesses to the tune of 
(£ 650 , 000 -£l^ni>- w , 

1116 orthodox wisdom about 
the old radicals is that they 
simply “dropped out” - 
to the more remote parts of the 
country, such as Montana, that 
Jfcw appears the natural habi- 
tat of the paranoid right 
But this is an incomplete pic- 
ture. as the subsequent history 
of some of the mare famous 
names from that era show. 
Tom Hayden, one of the On- 
cago Seven whose conviction 
on charges of incitement to 
riot at the 1968 Democratic 
convention in Chicago was 
overturned on appeal and who 


later married Jane Fonda, then 
both actress and activist, is 
now a Democratic state sena- 
tor in California. . 

Two other co-defendants. 
Jerry Rubin,' who became a 
Wall Street securities analyst, 
and Abbie Hoffman of the Yip- 
pie Party, showed money- 
making talents before they 
died, Hoffman by his own 
>y>nri Bernadine Dabrn, promi- 
nent in Students for a Demo- 
cratic Society (SDS), spent 10 
years on’ the run and now 
works at a university law 
school in Chicago and coaches 
children’s baseball. 

Mark Rudd of the Weather- 
men, who barely escaped with 
his life when a bomb factory 
exploded in a Greenwich Vil- 
lage townhouse in 1970, 
became a vocational school 
teacher in New Mexico. 

Sam Brown, head of the Viet- 
nam Moratorium Committee 
while a divinity student at Har- 
vard, moved swiftly into gov- 
ernment, first as state trea- 
surer of Colorado and then into 
■T immy Carter's State Depart- 
ment. He now serves the 
administration of a more mod- 
est anti-war protester. Bill 
Clinton, as head of the US dele- 
gation to the Organisation cm 
Security and Co-operation in 
Europe (OSCE) in Vienna. 

A ngela Davis, the black 
radical acquitted in 
1970 of murder during 
the invasion of a California 
court, is still teaching in the 
California University system. 
Bobby Seale, cofounder of the 
Black Panthers, has published 
a very non-revolutiouary cook- 
book. Barbecueii with Bobby. 

Within the last year, three 
other old radical fugitives 
'wanted for serious crimes have 
either turned themselves in or 
been arrested and gone to jaiL 
All had held jobs, raised fami- 
lies and otherwise merged 
without much difficulty into 
the fabric of everyday life. 
That was not the choice of 
man suspected of being the 
Unabomber. His 1960s aca- 
demic pedigree - as a mathe- 
matician at Harvard, Berkeley 
and Michigan - surely exposed 
him to the radical movement 
which flourished at all three 
universities and traces of 
which survive in the Unabom- 
ber’s manifesto. 

But there is no evidence that 
he was era 1 a conspicuous part 
of the movement and the sen- 
imposed solitude of the last 25 
years suggests a conscious, 
even Intellectual, disconnec- 
tion from all aspects of society. 

If that stands at one remove 
from the often semi-literate 
and obscure rationales with 
which the Freemen and the 
mittrin Justify their own defi- 
ance of authority, the distance, 
at least on the dark side of the 
moon, may not be that great 

Jurek Martin 


By SHraz Skftiva bi New Delhi 

Iodia’s Supreme Conrt has 
ruled that election spending by 
candidates and parties in this 
month's general election will 
be strictly scrutinised. 

The ruling is a harsh indict- 
ment of Indian political par- 
ties, which since the 1970s 
have spent progressively larger 
amounts of unaccounted 
money on elections. A lack of 
transparency in election fund- 
ing has strengthened the nexus 


between politicians and big 
businesses, spawning corrup- 
tion scandals, such as the 
“hawala” money laundering 
sramdai which led to the resig- 
nation of several ministers 
from the government of prime 
minister P V Narasimha Rao. 

The judgment is in response 
to a petition filed by Mr 
HDShonrie, a retired bureau- 
crat wbo heads Common 
fhqy. a non-profit social inter- 
est organisation. Mr Shourie 
said some political parties had 


not filed income tax returns in 
more than a decade, and were 
flouting the rules of parliament 
and the inramp, tax laws with 
impunity. 

In their r uling . Mr Justice 
Kill dip Singh and Mr Justice 
Faizan Uddin said; “The politi- 
cal parties in their quest for 
power, spend more than 
RslObn on the general election, 
yet nobody accounts for the 
bulk of the money so spent and 
there is no accountability any- 
where. Nobody discloses the 


source of money. There are no 
proper accounts and no audit 
“in a democracy where rule 
of law prevails, this type of 
naked display of black money, 
by violating the mandatory 
provisions of law, cannot be 
permitted,” the judges said. 

The court said the revenue 
secretary from the ministry of 
finance was empowered to 
order inquiries against default- 
ers and take necessary action. 
Parties and candidates would 
have to account for all money 


spent on their campaigns, 
whether or not they had 
authorised the expenditure. 

India’s election laws permit 
political parties to spend up to 
Rs450,000 (H3300) per election, 
and individual candidates ap 
to Rsl50,000. Politicians say 
these figures are unrealistic. 

“It is impossible for top lead- 
ers to campaign across the 
length and the breadth of the 
country, except by helicopter, 
but the ceiling is so ridicu- 
lously low that it allows only 


for travel by bullock cart,” 
says a senior Bharatiya Janata 
party MP. 

But political parties which 
have adhered to the law have 
welcomed the judgment. “It 
will help curb lavish expendi- 
ture by some parties, and it 
will also help the Election 
Commission curb the illegal 
use of money during elec- 
tions” said Mr Prakash Karat, 
a polltburo member of the 
Communist Party of India 
(Marxist). 


Mexican church leaders speak 
out against the ‘God of profit’ 


Toyota heads for 
China engine deal 


By Leslie Crawford 
in Mexico City 

Early every morning, in a 
shabby quarter of Mexico City, 
a silent queue of supplicants 
forms outside the offices of 
Caritas, the Catholic Church’s 
charity organisation. Peasants 
stand in frayed trousers, 
clutching bundles of poss- 
essions and scraps of paper 
with Caritas's providential 
address. Women have come to 
beg for food. Young men, 
thrown out of work by the eco- 
nomic crisis, hope the charity 
will find them a job. 

The queue has got longer as 
the recession deepens. Caritas 
feeds 36,000 people every week 
in the capital alone. The char- 
ity has rented warehouses 
from which it distributes 
donated food to orphanages. 
hospices and soup kitchens. It 
runs vocational training 
courses for unemployed youth, 
and health clinics for those too 
poor to afford , the govern- 
ment's subsidised services. 

Father Manuel Zubillaga, 
Caritas director, says the chari- 
ty’s resources have been over- 
whelmed by the destitution 
caused by Mexico’s financial 
crash. Every person he turns 
away empty-handed increases 
his anger against a “morally 
unjust” economic system. 

He quotes government statis- 
tics which estimate 4Cfin Mexi- 
cans have been plunged into 
abject poverty as a result of 


the worst economic slump 
since the 1930s, almost twice 
the number of poor that 
existed before the devaluation 
of the peso 16 months ago. 

“The government is pursuing 
absurd economic policies.” Fr 
Zubillaga says. “It ignores 
Mexico’s social needs, it has 
created massive unemploy- 
ment. The church does not 
Irish to attack individuals [in 
government], but it is critical 
of the values upon which this 
economic model is built” 

The church has 
added a powerful 
voice to those who 
believe Mexico’s 
liberal economic 
experiment failed 

Mexico’s unprecedented 
social hardship has brought 
the Catholic Church into an 
uneasy confrontation with the 
government. 

Over the past year, church 
leaders have become increas- 
ingly vocal in their criticism of 
President Ernesto Zedillo's 
orthodox economic policies. 
They have spoken oat against 
tax increases and against the 
cutbacks in social spending 
needed to repay $41bn of for- 
eign debt last year. 

At a recent, well publicised 
meeting of the Mexican Episco- 


pal Conference, Bishop Abe- 
lardo Alvarado told assembled 
clergy that the Church could 
not accept “a system which 
subordinates and sacrifices 
fundamental human rights to 
economics”. 

Archbishop Sergio Obeso 
Rivera also lashed out against 
“profit, which lias become a 
new, all-powerful god”. 

Such outspoken views are 
new to a Church which was 
officially recognised by the 
Mexican state only four years 
ago, when relations with the 
Vatican were restored after a 
130-year break. 

While nearly 90 per cent of 
Mexicans are Catholic, 
Mexico’s anti-clerical 1917 con- 
stitution banned churches 
from owning property or run- 
ning schools (a ruling tacitly 
ignored by the authorities), for- 
bade priests to wear cassocks 
in public, and denied them the 
vote. Constitutional reforms in 
1992 gave legal recognition to 
religious institutions for the 
first time in 70 years. 

“Official recognition led to a 
honeymoon between the con- 
servative Church hierarchy 
and the government of [then 
president] Carlos Salinas,” 
says Mr Emilio Alvarez, who 
heads Cencos, a Catholic think- 
tank in Mexico City. “They 
were seduced by the invita- 
tions to the presidential palace, 
and their acceptance as mem- 
bers of the establishment.” 

By the end of Mr Salinas’s 


presidency in 1994, however. 
Mr Alvarez says the church's 
disillusionment with the gov- 
ernment had set in. 

Fraudulent elections, rising 
crime, a peasant guerrilla 
uprising in the southern state 
of Chiapas, and last year’s 
slump propelled the church 
into a more militant stance. 
adding a powerful moral voice 
to those who believe that 
Mexico's neo-liberal economic 
experiment has foiled. 

The Mexican government is 
suspicious of the Catholic 
Church’s new protagonism, 
and the ruling Institutional 
Revolutionary party (PRD has 
attacked its perceived med- 
dling in politics. 

However, the government 
has nevertheless sought the 
co-operation of the church to 
maintain social peace. 

Last November, when Presi- 
dent Zedillo appeared to be tot- 
tering nnripr rumours of mili- 
tary coups and renewed 
volatility in the financial mar- 
kets. it was a meeting between 
the president and Mexican 
bishops, and their subsequent 
call for social unity, which 
steadied the government 

Since then, the Church hier- 
archy has been careful to mod- 
erate its statements, wary of 
fanning social unrest Its cau- 
tion has frustrated the more 
radical, grass-roots clergy, wbo 
believe the church is abdica- 
ting its duty to promote social 

Chang e. 


By William Dawkins in Tokyo 

Toyota is close to securing 
Chinese approval for an engine 
plant in Tianjin. 

Japan's biggest carmaker 
said plans for a joint venture 
with state-owned Tianjin Auto- 
motive Works to make 100.000 
engines a year, with an Initial 
investment of Y17bn ($l59m). 
were being considered by Bei- 
jing. 

Mr Hiroshi Okuda, Toyota's 
president, has made no secret 
since taking office last August 
that increasing the group's 
Chinese and south east Asian 
presence is a priority. 

Volkswagen, the Chinese 
market leader, Peugeot, 
Citroen and Chrysler all have 
car plants in China. Japanese 
producers fear they are being 
left behind in a market where 
vehicle production is expected 
to rise from 1.3m units in 1994 
to 3m by 2000. 

A joint engine manufactur- 
ing project under negotiation 
for the past two years, is seen 
by industry analysts as the 
first step towards a complete 
car plant. Tianjin makes Cha- 
rade hatchbacks and HiJet 
vans designed by Toyota’s affil- 
iate, Daihatsu, the main Japa- 
nese producer in China. 

Toyota is keen to seal the 
deal soon, as China plans to 
remove tax concessions for 
imported capital equipment for 
use by joint ventures. 

Ironically. Toyota could have 


established a car plant in 
China in the early 1980s, well 
before VW opened the first 
European plant in 1985, if it 
had accepted a Chinese govern- 
ment invitation at the time. 
But the Japanese group turned 
down the offer on the grounds 
that the risks were then too 
great. 

Beijing’s memory of that 
snub has faded but apparently 
not died. “The French and Ger- 
mans were prepared to take 
the risk and Toyota has suf- 
fered for that,” said Mr Peter 
Boardman, car industry ana- 
lysts at UBS Securities in 
Tokyo. 

Toyota's Chinese strategy 
has until now been limited to 
gaining access through affili- 
ates. principally 33.4 per cent 
owned Daihatsu and Nippon- 
denso. its 22.9 per cent owned 
components manufa cturer. 

Tianjin produced 65.000 Cha- 
rades last year, up from 58.000 
in 1994 and receives technical 
assistance from Daihatsu. Nip- 
pondenso started a joint ven- 
ture with Tianjin in February, 
to make starters and alterna- 
tors for the Charade. The pro- 
spective engine making joint 
venture would supply 1300cc 
units for the vehicle. 

• Mitsubishi yesterday 
announced plans to produce a 
new multi-purpose vehicle at 
its Netherlands-based joint 
venture with Volvo, the Swed- 
ish car group, and boost capac- 
ity there by 50 per cent. 


N Korea quits armistice f PetroFina 


By John Burton bi Seoul 

South Korean armed forces 
yesterday stepped op surveil- 
lance of North Korean military 
movements after Pyongyang 
said it had renounced its obli- 
gations under the armistice 
agreement that ended the 
1950-53 Korean war. 

North Korea has been frying 
to two years to dismantle the 
armistice and replace it with a 
formal peace treaty with Wash- 
ington.. 

Pyongyang hopes this will 
lead to the withdrawal of 37,000 
US troops from South Korea- 

Offfcials in Seoul have 
warned that North Korea 
might try to provoke a military 
incident along the demflitar- 
Ised zone in the belief that this 


would force the US to consider 
such a treaty. 

Analysts compared the 
North Korean statement with 
its 1993 threat to withdraw 
from the nuclear non-prolifera- 
tion treaty as a means to gain 
diplomatic attention of the US. 

The threat to withdraw from 
the international nuclear safe- 
guards treaty led to negotia- 
tions with US and an agree- 
ment by North Korea to 
abandon its suspected nuclear 
weapons p r ogr am me in return 
for the supply of safer nuclear 
react ors- 

The latest North Korean 
action appears timed to coin- 
cide with a visit by US Presi- 
dent Bill Clinton to South 
Korea on April 16 for talks on 
North Korea with South Kor- 


ean President Kim Young-sam. 

The armistice announcement 
may also reflect North Korean 
frustrations that its recent 
offers to hold negotiations with 
the US on the armistice agree- 
ment and with South Korea on 
emergency food aid hare been 
ignored. 

Some analysts in Seoul 
suggested that the South Kor- 
ean decision to heighten sur- 
veillance may also reflect 
dome s tic political consider- 
ations ahead of general elec- 
tions next week. 

China, which has been 
Pyongyang’s closest ally, said 
it opposed North Korea’s 
at te mp ts to nullify the armi- 
stice agreement 

The US called on North 
Korea to honour the truce. 


During its meeting of 26 March, the Board of 
Directors of PetroRna dosed the accounts of 
the company for 1995. The consolidated 
profit amounts to 123 bilfion BEF, in which 
Betrofina’s feare amounts to 1 1 & bffion Bff and 
fee minority interests’ share to 0.7 billion BEF. 
The consolidated cash flow amounts to 39.3 
billion BEF, and the sales and other operating 
revenues amount to 5632 billion BEF. 

The share of PetroFina in the recurrent net 
income reaches 13.0 billion BEF (562 
BEF/share) versus 8.3 billion BEF (354 
BEF/sharej in 1994. an increase of dose to 
60%. The Board will propose to fee Annual 
General Meeting of Shareholders on May 10, 
1996 the payment of a gross dividend of 352 
BEF per share or an increase of 10% on feat 
paid in 1994 which included an anniversary 
dividend. This dividend will be payable to 
23252,451 shares from May 23. 1996. 


Financial data for 1995 (in billion BEF) 


-Upstream 

-Downstream 

-Cherniak 

- Paints 
-Holding 

Profit per segment 

- Inventories vwite-badc 

- Met financial charges 

-Taxes 


- Group's share 

- Minority interests 

k Cash fori 


gment 

1994 

1995 

Recurr 

1994 

ent 

3995 

18.6 

132 

9.9 

13.0 

5.1 

0.1 

4.9 

0.1 

8.4 

19.7 

8.4 

19.7 

1.5 

13 

15 

1.3 

•1.4 

-13 

•1.4 

-13 

32.2 

33.0 

233 

32.8 

2.0 

03 

* 


-6.4 

■62 

■64 

-62 

-113 

-13.0 

-8.1 

•13.0 

-5.1 

•1.8 

- 

- 

10.9 

123 

8.8 

13.7 

103 

11.6 

83 

13.0 

0.6 

0.7 

0.5 

0.7 

39.4 

393 

332 

39.7 

530.7 

5632 

5712 

563.0 

81.8 

77.8 

- 



i 



^r.«7 




FINANCIAL 


TIMES WEEKEND APRIL 6/APRIL 7/APRIL 8 1996 



‘There will undoubtably be Names who remain so angry that they do not care whether Lloyd’s survives’ 

Deal with US regulators delays pursuit of Names 


By Ralph Atkins, 
Insurance Correspondent 


Lloyd's of Loudon is to stop 
pursuing the debts of US 
Names for one month as part 
of a "ceasefire" agreement 
with a group of state securities 
regulators. Lloyd's hopes the 
agreement will give time to 
persuade regulators across the 
US to halt court actions, 
prompted by lossmaking 
Names, which threaten to dis- 
rupt its recovery plans. 

It hopes instead to persuade 
Names to accept the recovery 
plan, which includes a £L8bn 
offer to loss making and litigat- 
ing Names. However, the 
Lloyd's agreement with the 


North American Securities 
Administrators Association 
(NASAA). will not stop legal 
action brought by California's 
department of corporations, 
which was not part of the deal. 

The California action is caus- 
ing particular headaches for 
Lloyd’s because it could lead to 
the freezing of Lloyd’s trust 
funds held in the US to guaran- 
tee underwriting there. Like 
action by securities regulators 
in eight other states, it is based 
on allegations that investment 
in Lloyd's was mls-sold. 

Mr Peter Lane. Lloyd's north 
American managing director, 
said Lloyd's had “a chance to 
educate the state securities 
a dminis trators about the mar- 


ket”. The amount owed by US 
Names is likely to run Into 
hundreds of milli ons of dollars. 

Lloyd's hopes to reach 
agreements with the securities 
regulators modelled on propos- 
als accepted in Louisiana. Reg- 
ulators there agreed not to pur- 


LLOYD’S 


LLOYD'S OF LONDON 
sue legal action until August, 
by when Lloyd's hopes to have 
persuaded Names to accept its 
recovery plan. 

Mr Philip Feigin. chairman 
of the NASAA co-ordinating 
committee, said: "We believe it 
will be of benefit to tone things 


down for a while and give both 
sides a chance to talk with 
each other." 

• Lloyd's should increase its 
proposed £2.8bn ($4J3bn) out-of- 
court offer to lossmaking and 
litigating Names which forms 
part of the insurance market’s 
recover; plan, says an indepen- 
dent report today. But the Lon- 
don law firm Slaughter and 
May says alternatives to the 
recovery plan are unlikely to 
leave anyone better off. It adds 
that a plan by Lloyd's to "re- 
insure" billions of claims out 
s tanding on old insurance poli- 
cies into a rescue vehicle. Equi- 
tas. this s umm er offers the 
best way of drawing a line 
under most Names’ affairs. 


Names have little prospect of 
escaping underwriting liabili- 
ties through legal action, the 
firm warns. Slaughter and May 
says: "All sections of the 
Lloyd’s community are cur- 
rently engaged In an elaborate 
game of ‘chicken* as they head 
towards the brink. In our view, 
it is unlikely to be in the inter- 
ests of any section of the com- 
munity to take Lloyd’s over 

the edge." 

The firm adds, however: 
“There may well be. ..Names 
who calculate that, while they 
may not be better off if Lloyd’s 
fails, they may not be worse off 
either. And there will undoubt- 
ably be some Names who 
remain so angry that they do 


not care whether Lloyd's sur- 
vives or not. This is why more 
than gg-fl bn may be required.’’ 

The report’s support for the 
principles of the recovery plan 
provide an important boost to 
Lloyd's which welcomed its 
conclusions. “Strenuous" 
efforts are being made to 
increase the £2.8bn, Lloyd’s 
said. 

The £2.Sbn is needed to 
persuade Names to drop litiga- 
tion and help pay Cor the set- 
ting up of Eqpitas. Slaughter 
and May says it is "unable to 
think of a better form of ‘final- 
ity’, for the generality of 
Names, than that offered by 
the proposed reinsurance into 
Equitas”. 


Andersen lauds 
ruling in US 
on De Lorean 


By Jim Kelly, 

Accountancy Corr e spondent 


Arthur Andersen, the UK's 
second biggest accountancy 
firm, hopes a government ban 
on it competing for govern- 
ment contracts will eventually 
be lifted following a US court 
victory in its long-running dis- 
pute with the government over 
the collapse of the De Lorean 
car company in 1982. 

Andersen said a New York 
judge had dismissed several 
claims - including those 
brought under federal racke- 
teering laws - brought against 
the firm in its role as auditor 
to Mr John De Lorean's notori- 
ous car manufacturer. 

It said that as a result the 
claims it still faced amounted 
to just $20m - instead of an 
estimated total exposure to 
claims of up to $lbn involving 
the award of triple damages 
under US racketeering laws, 
plus interest payments. How- 
ever. the UK government Is 
expected to pursue the remain- 
ing c laims vigorously. 

The action was launched in 
the New York courts against 
Andersen in the US, UR and 
Republic of Ireland. The suit 
was filed by the then UK gov- 
ernment's Department of Eco- 
nomic Development Andersen 
said the decision revealed the 
claim was an attempt to make 
the firm a "scapegoat for the 
ineptitude and mistakes of gov- 
ernment officials”. 

Andersen was banned from 
public contract work following 
the collapse of De Lorean. 
Despite the accountancy firm's 
recent merger with Binder 
Hamiyn, which has a signifi- 
cant public sector business, it 
will hope that the judgment 
brings within sight a return to 
a potentially lucrative sector. 

Lawyers for Andersen in 
New York said: "This was an 
Alice in Wonderland claim 
from the start and it has lin- 
gered over Andersen like a 


black cloud far 11 years." Zirin, 
Brown & Wood added that the 
UK government had pursued 
the action in the hope of hit- 
ting the "jackpot” of triple 
damages allowed in cases 
brought under racketeering 
laws. 

The firm added that Judge 
M.B. Mukasey's ruling “makes 
clear that Andersen played no 
part in the UK government’s 
decision to pour funds into an 
economically risky and ulti- 
mately doomed investment". 

However. Andersen conceded 
that the judge had permitted a 
trial to proceed on claims 
under federal securities laws. 
In a companion case brought 
by De Lorean’s bankruptcy 
trustee in the US the judge had 
dismissed claims based on fed- 
eral statutes "leaving only 
what are regarded as highly 
speculative claims for conse- 
quential damages". 

It is understood that UK gov- 
ernment lawyers in New York 
are hopeful that they will still 
win substantia] damages from 
the firm in the remaining 
actions which could come to 
court within a year. They 
believe that Andersen still has 
to answer serious allegations 
about its role as auditor of the 
failed company. 

De Lorean Motor Cars, the 
manufacturing company which 
employed 2,500 people, col- 
lapsed in October 1982 after 
eight months in receivership. 
The government lost £77m in 
the collapse. 

The decision to invest £53m 
in the project was made by the 
Labour government in 1978. 
Top-up funds continued to be 
provided after the Thatcher 
election victory of 1979, mainly 
because of the jobs at stake in 
one of the UK's most depressed 
regions. 

Mr De Lorean, the factory’s 
founder, now 71, was accused 
of stealing milli ons of dollars 
of investors' money but was 
never convicted. 


LLOYDS INTERNATIONAL 
PORTFOLIO SICAV 


1. nnr Schiller 
L-L<10 Luxembourg 
R.C. Luxirmbourp No B 7.fc35 


Notice i' hcichj yncn to Lhc NluivMlm llul on Eitraordinor* General Meeting 
of SluKhoklcr. ot LLOl US INTERNATIONAL PORTFOLIO SICAV will be 
fork! ai the rejiMcrvJ office in Luicmbourp. I rue Schiller, on 16 April 19% at 
1 1.00 am in rider <0 modify die Ankle* of Incorporation as ruled in die following 
agenda: 

I. Deferral of redemption 

A ne» jxnacniph n added in die Article 14. jiier dir -dh paragra ph (“Share* of 
(he capital illicit of the Company redeemed by the Company ihall be 
cancelled - ! n follow t: 

“Without pmudicc to die provisions of Articles 22. if there loll lo be redeemed 
IpunuaiU to mpjcst* for redemption or cony cry u«nl on any Dealing Day more 
don ten per cem ■.*> die number o( Shan.-* iH die class concerned then in issue, 
the Directory may declare that certain redemptions will be deferred for a period 
from ihcn until a Dealing Day (being not mute than scsen Dealing Days 
themlicTi and the Companj shall not tv bound to redeem any Shares of the 
clau concerned before dut Dealing Day. On that Dealing Day, requests for 
redemption ur conteninn which hare been deferred (and not effectively 
withdrawn) dull he executed with pnonix oxer later tequeuv If a request is 
deferred purwum to dm paragraph, die relevant Dealing Day shall be the day 
■m which such mjuca is complied with and the request dull be deemed to hue 
bear received the Iwismew day preceding the Dealing Day. - 
2 Change of payment value dales for subscriptiorn and redemptions 
The 2nd jxirigniph of the Article 21 u modified is follows: 

The redemption price shall be paid not burr dun three business days after the 
date un which the applicable net asset value was dcfcrmnetL.. - 
The last sentence of the Article 24 is modified as lotlowa: 

-The pner so determined shall be payable not later than three business days 
alter the date <m *hkh the application was accepted.' 

KcsoiuiKnx. on the agenda will require a quorum or one half of the outstanding 
shares ml « ill he odupfed if toted by a majority of run [hints of the shares present 
or represented. 

B« order oi the Board at Directors 


LLOYDS INTERNATIONAL 
PORTFOLIO SICAV 


t.fuc Schiller 
L-25lh Luxemburg 
R.C. Luxembourg No. B 7 6?$ 


NOTICE 

is hereby given to the Shareholders dial the Annual General Meecmg of Shareholders 
Ol LLOYDS INTERNATIONAL PORTFOLIO SICAV will be held at the 
registered office. in Luxembourg, I me Schiller, on lb April l**% 41 1 1 JO am with 
the following agenda: 

1. Submission of the reports of die Board of Directors and or the Authorised 

Independent Auditor 

2. Approv al id Ihe annual accounts as 41 21 October 1995 and allocation of the net 
mulls: 

3. Discharge to the Aulhonvd Independent Auditor for the financial period ended 
?l October IWS: 

4. Election of the Auihonsri Independent Auditor for the new financial yean 

y. Aciiw* lodgement of die resignation of Mr R.G. Keller and Mr S. UrUyana 
from ihe Board af DtrecWK 
h. Election of Mr M.T. Fealc as a new Director. 

7. To tranuri »udi other business as may properly come before the Meeting. 
RcwhHims on the agenda of the Annual General Meeting wit! require no quorum 
and »d! be taken at the majonty of the votes expressed bj die Shareholders present 
or represented as the Meeting. 


Bv order Of the Board of Direcion 


‘Mad cow disease’: Farmer warns of 'catastrophe’ 


Minister seeks to limi t 
EU slaughter demand 


By Deborah Hargreaves 
and David Lascelles 


The British government Is 
likely to go along with farmers' 
refusal to accept the nation- 
wide cull of cattle ordered by 
the European Union to stamp 
out BSE, or “mad cow disease". 

Mr Douglas Hogg, the agri- 
culture minister, will seek 
ways of limiting the cull to 
selected herds with a high inci- 
dence of BSE, rather than erad- 
icating all herds in which the 
disease has been reported. 

Mr Hogg has until the end of 
this month to come up with a 
slaughtering plan, fallowing 
his failure last week to per- 
suade EU colleagues to lift 
their Han on British beef. 

However, the government 
has ruled out any special treat- 
ment far Scottish farmers who 
had been claiming that their 
herds are relatively uninfected. 
Lord Lindsay, a Scottish Office 
minister, said yesterday that 
there were still incidents of 
BSE in Scotland and then 
could be no exemptions under 
the proposed slaughter policy- 

Farmers across the UK are 
horrified at the prospect of any 
widespread slaughter policy. 
"My initial reaction was: *WeH 
block the road and not let 
them in.’ It will be cata- 
strophic." said Mr Hugh Black, 
a dairy farmer near the 
England /Wales border. 

The National Farmers' Union 
has said it will resist any gov- 
ernment plan for a selective 
slaughter of cattle herds most 
affected by BSE. "Before even 
giving consideration to such a 
plan we would want to see 
hard evidence that any such 
action would drastically reduce 
the number of BSE cases in 
this country," Sir David Naish 
NFU president, told Mr John 
Major, the prime minister. 

Sir David told Mr Major he 
would strongly oppose any 
plans to remove herds because 
there is no scientific justifica- 
tion for it However, NFU offi- 
cials realise that the govern- 
ment may be forced to 
implement such a policy if 
they want the worldwide ban 
on British beef lifted. 

The NFU is therefore advis- 
ing the Ministry of Agricuiture 
on the best way to select herds 
for slaughter. "If it is forced on 
us we want it done in the most 
sensible way, but that doesn’t 
mean we accept the principle 
of a scheme," said Mr Ian Gar- 
diner, the NFU*s policy direc- 
tor. 

The NFU is looking at the 
possibility of targeting herds 
with more than 20 cases of 
BSE, which would affect 1.100 
farms in the UK. 

But dairy' farmers who would 
be most affected by a selective 
slaughter policy have spent 
many years building up their 
herds and would find it very 
difficult and expensive to 
replace them. Heifers, either 



A shopper loads purchases including beef into her car outside 
file Brent Cross shopping centre in north London 


Shoppers flock to cut-price beef 


Executive 

alleges 

‘smear 

campaign’ 


By Clay Harris in London 


Shoppers have regained 
confidence in beef, the duty 
manager of a big new London 
supermarket said yesterday, 
our Marketing Correspondent 
writes. At the recently-opened 
Sainsbnry superstore at New 
Cross Gate, south London, Mr 
PhQ Jeal said beef sales bad 
been restored to normal with 
the help of a half-price offer 
last week. “Our difficulty has 
been in getting supplies," he 
added. 

Mr Andy Vince, meat man- 
ager, confirmed strong sales, 
particularly during three days 


of discounting: "Last Friday, 
alone, we sold what we would 
normally have sold in two 
weeks." 

Some customers were taking 
the opportunity to stock freez- 
ers, he said. One had been seen 
purchasing 20 joints of beef 
and 20 packets of frying steak. 
But customers still appeared 
to be steering clear of beef- 
burgers. 

Mr Stuart Robinson had no 
misgivings about baying ramp 
steak for his supper "If I was 
going to get anything it would 
have been before 1989.” 


about to give birth or just 
calved, cost between £700 and 
£1,000 and the typical dairy 
herd contains 100 cows. 

Mr Black reckons that a 
widespread slaughter policy 
would see the price of heifers 
double. 

Dairy farmers like Mr Black 
typically breed their own 
replacement milking cows. He 
adds around 25 cows a year 
and culls the older cows or 
those that yield the least m»k. 
The average dairy cow is 
slaughtered when it is 6 years 
old, but good milkers are often 


kept in herds for much longer 
- Mr Black's oldest caws are 17 
years old. 

u A lifetime's work has gone 
into b uilding up many dairy 
herds and in choosing the best 
milkers to replace older cows. 
Farmers would be heartbroken 
to see them all killed,” Mr 
Black said. 

Mr Black has had 18 
outbreaks of BSE in his 130- 
strong herd. Most of those 
occurred in a group of cows 
bom between August and Sep- 
tember 1987 and fed on contam- 
inated feed. 


Mr Peter Robinson last night 
accused Woolwich Building 
Society of launching an 
"orchestrated smear cam- 
paign” against bim after forc- 
ing his resignation cm as group 
chief executive on Tuesday. 

Woolwich, meanwhile, indi- 
cated that the audit which led 
to his removal was prompted 
by a "whistleblowing" com- 
plaint by an employee who 
claimed internal rules had 
been broken. It was also inves- 
tigating whether "collusion" 
was involved in Mr Robinson's 
alleged misuse of company ser- 
vices, Including decorating and 
gardening work undertaken at 
his home. 

Mr Robinson, speaking for 
the first time since being 
ousted by Britain's third larg- 
est building society, said leaks 
had been initiated containing 
"very specific" information. 

Mr David Blake, head of cor- 
porate affairs, said last night 
"The Woolwich has made no 
comment at all apart from Out 
press release [ announcing his 
resignation] and answering 
journalists' questions. We are 
not orchestrating anything.” 

Mr Robinson would not dis- 
cuss the allegations against 
him , which he had previously 
denied through his lawyers. 
But he said Woolwich was 
urging employees to supply 
infor matio n against him , tell- 
ing them: "Please come for- 
ward, your job is safe." 

In his role of preparing Wool- 
wich for a stock market flota- 
tion, circumstances had arisen 
in which "the fainthearted are 
going to have a struggle a bit” 
Describing his approach as 
“authoritative but hopefully 
friendly, ” Mr Robinson added: 
“We're not in a bunch of 
wimps, are wer 

Mr Donald Kirkham. 
Woolwich's acting chief execu- 
tive. said earlier that employ- 
ees of the society were being 
questioned although none had 
been removed or suspended. “If 
the allegations are proved, 
they will be proved on the 
basis there was collusion," be 
said. "The odd third party 
might be involved,” Mr Kirk- ' 
ham added. 

Although Mr Robinson 
became chief executive on Jan- 
uary 1, "these allegations go 
back a few years,” Mr Kirkham 
said. He added that directors 
learned that management had 
lost confidence In Mr Robinson 
only when it received the 
audit "Until that report was 
on the table, the directors had 
no idea what the position was," 
Mr Kirkham said. 

Mr Robinson, who had 
worked for Woolwich for 33 
years, said: “I haven’t changed 
in three months. I was 
appointed because of perfor- 
mance and a certain manage- 
ment style.” 


Self-assessment for millions who file their own returns begins today 


Tax reform is biggest for 50 years 


By Jim Kelly, 

Acco u nt a ncy Correspondent 


Anyone who has sat in the back of a 
British taxicab in the past few weeks can 
have no doubt that the country is about to 
embark on the biggest reform of the tax 
system since the introduction of Pay As 
You Earn half a century ago. 

Taxi drivers, along with 9m other 
taxpayers who file their own tax returns 
such as the self-employed, directors, 
partners and those with complicated tax 
affairs, are just begining to realise what 
the new system means for them. 

Self-assessment - or SA as it is known - 
begins today. In April next year the first 
SA tax returns will go out to taxpayers. 
About half will be self-employed and about 
half already have professional help with 
their tax returns. 

The one thing the Inland Revenue wants 
to avoid is taxpayers sitting back and 
thinking they do not have to worry about 
self-assessment until the form drops 
through the letterbox next year. "It is 


important that taxpayers realise that to 
fill that return in properly they have to 
start keeping financial records now,” said 
the Revenue. 

But employees are not the only ones 
who have to start getting ready for 
self-assessment now. “Employers should 
know that if they provide benefits for staff 
they must make sure they talk to the 
Revenue or their advisers to make sure 
that their systems wifi give them the right 
information to give to employees in 1997" 
the Revenue explained. 

The big difference between 
self-assessment and the old system, and 
the shift from prior to current year 
assessment which goes with it, is that 
taxpayers will now provide the figures on 
which their tax bills are based. Their tax 
form will be processed and checked lata*. 

If taxpayers want to they can even work 
out for themselves what their tax bill will 
be and go straight ahead and pay It The 
Revenue null look at the forms later - and 
may launch inquiries in some cases. A 
new system of penalties will give the new 


tax regime teeth. This system is clearer 
and initially much more rigid than the 
present system which involves what the 
government calls the “annual palaver” of 
negotiations between taxpayer and 
taxman. 

The problem with the new system is 
that it places much of the administrative 
burden on taxpayers to collect the right 
information and fill in the forms — anti on 
employers to provide precise information 
such as the cash equivalents of 
beneflts-in-kind such as a company car. 

The Inland Revenue has always insisted 
that the new system should not force any 
taxpayer who does not need advice under 
the old system to seek it under SA. This 
claim is widely doubted by professionals - 
who are eager to win new clients when the 
new tax forms arrive next year. 

Taxpayers will have a range of paid 
advice to choose from. Barclays Bank is 
offering three services, of varying 
complexity, linked to SA. H&R Block, the 
big US tax filing specialists, is looking at 
the market 





UK NEWS DIGEST 


Regulator expels 
bond salesman 


The Securities and Futures Authority has exercised its most 
powerful sanction against a former employee in London of CS 
First Boston, the investment banking arm of Credit Suisse of 
Switzerland. Mr David Santangelo. a CSFB bond salesman, 
was expelled from the securities regulates registers, it was 
announced on Thursday. The regulator has. in effect banned 
Mr Santangelo for life from working in the City. 

The SFA fined Mr Santangelo £25.000 ($38,000) and ordered 
him to pay costs of £8,000. The penalty Is not as large as the 
£200,000 imposed on Mr Anthony O'Sullivan, former man a ging 


director of Sassoon Europe, the stockbroking firm. But expul- 
sion is a rare punishment, imposed only 50 times since the 
SPA's formation in 1991. The SFA's latest action is one of the 
most serious against an employee of the leading investment 

banks. 

Without SFA registration it is very difficult for anyone to 
obtain wor k in the City securities markets. No one expelled by 
the SFA b ag yet managed to make a City comeback. The SFA 
ffftiti Mir Santangelo had concealed a loss on a position from a 
client bis employer. He arranged the sale of overpriced 
securities to the client to disguise the loss, the SFA said. 

Mr Santangelo hid the deficit, estimated at 55m, for several 
months of 1994 before being discovered by his managers and 
dismissed from CSFB. He is understood to have left the UK for 
the US. The SFA is sending the board notice regarding Mr 
Santangelo to the US Securities and Exchange Co mmission . 
CSFB, the SFA said, has compensated the client for its consid- 
erable l o s ses . Nicholas Denton and George Graham 


Police on ERA alert 


Armed with sweeping new powers, police were on alert across 
the country yesterday following fears of another Irish Republi- 
can Army bombing this Easter weekend. Thousands of officers 
were on holiday duty, manning roadblocks and monitoring 
airports and public buildings following intelligence warnings 
of a possible bomb attack timed to mark the 80th anniversary 
of the 1916 Easter Uprising in Dublin. 

For the first time, police had the right to stop and search 
pedestrians and cordon off parking areas - all powers con- 
tained in the emergency legislation rushed through parlia- 
ment earlier this week. Sir Patrick Mayhew, the Northern 
Ireland secretary, yesterday condemned the IRA's continued 
commitment to the use of violence and said it alienated than 
from the public. He said it was a “very sad thing" that the IRA 
should choose Eastertime to reaffirm its willingness to use 
terrorism. “I think that shows that they are wholly out of 
touch with the wishes of the people of Ireland." he said. 

Mark Suzman, London 


Life houses face curb 


City of London regulators are preparing to crack down on life 
assurance companies and independent advisers which are not 
making enough progress with reviewing their sales of personal 
pensions. The Personal Investment Authority, the watchdog to 
protect the private investor, is planning to fire a warning shot 
across the bows of companies which are not getting on with 
the review. Their task is to identify and compensate victims of 
bad advice to leave oar not to join an occupational pension 
scheme. Across the retail finan cial services sector, this 
involves reopening hundreds of thousands of cases. Estimates 
of the total bill for compensation range up to £4bn ($6.1hn>. 

The warning is likely to come as a statement after the PIA 
board meeting later this month. It is expected to spell out the “ 
range of penalties that the regulator can impose on those who 
break its rules. This includes reprimands, fines and requiring 
the culprit to take out press advertisements detailing the 
disciplinary charges against it After it has looked at the most 
recent set of information reflecting progress up to the end of 
March, the PIA intends to inspect companies which seem not 
to be trying to meet the deadlines set by regulators. “The aim 
will be to make the p unishmen t appropriate to the crime, but 
there will be an end to the 18 months in which we have been 
'Mr Nice Guy*," (me regulator said. 

Alison Smith, Investment Correspondent 


Carmaker rescued again 


Reliant Motors, one of the last independent British car manu- 
facturers, yesterday showed stronger survival instinct than 
many more Illustrious names and emerged from insolvency for 
the third time. A licence to continue producing the company's 
glassfibre vehicles in Britain has been awarded to Mr Jona- 
than Heynes, who has a long background in the motor indus- 
try including 25 years with Jaguar. 

Under the rescue deal Reliant’s three-wheeled Robin will 
continue to be built. Revival of the Reliant Scimitar sports car 
range Is possible, although Mr Heynes said that his priority 
would be to concentrate on strengthening the core Robin 
business. Mr Heynes is understood to have paid between 
£300,000 ($456,000) and £500.000 for the right to continue produ- 
cing Reliants in Britain. He won in competition with an 
alternative bid led by Mr Peter Hall , Reliant’s chief executive 
when the company went into administration. 

Alan Pike, Business Services Correspondent 


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FTNANClAt. TIMK5 WEEKEND APRIL 6/APRIL 7/APRIL 8 1996 


COMPANIES AND FINANCE 


H*C 


'Pe| s 'Thomson and GEC to fonn joint sonar company Sumitomo takes 

t ^ By David Buchan in Paris and riorn>.*» L..- 7 -—a AM 


an 


alert 


t l *3? fi 


Util il 


By David Buchan in Paris and 
Bernard Gray in London 


Thomson -CSF of France and 
GEC-Marconi of the UK are to 
pool their sonar activities in a 
joint company which, with a 
FFr2.7bn. ($535m) turnover and 
3,500 employees, will be the 
second largest supplier of 
underwater listening devices 
after Lockheed Martin of the 
US. 

The company, to be named 
Thomson Marconi Sonar 
(TMS). will be owned 50.1 per 
cent by Thomson and 49.9 per 
bent by GEC, with the present 
head of Thomson Sintra, Mr 
Denis Ranque, taking charge of 
the new entity. 

However, safeguards have 
been incorporated to prevent 
Thomson using its controlling 
stake to override the interests 
of the Marconi half of the busi- 


TMS will manufacture sonar 
equipment for the British and 
..jjr French nuclear sub mar ine 
fleets, their anti-submarine 
frigates, and their anti-subma- 
rine maritime patrol aircraft. 

It pools the sonar interests of 
Thomson, GEC and the now- 


defunct Ferranti to give the 
venture a dominant position in 
Europe. 

Because submarines carry 
the bulk of the two countries' 
nuclear deterrents, sonar is 
considered a vital defence tech- 
nology by both countries. But 

the costs of staying at the fore- 
front of developments in 
sonar's expensive computer 
technology wirem that the two 
countries have had to pool 
their expertise. 

Mr Ranque said TMS would 
aim to combine the expertise of 
the companies, while maintain- 
ing the secrecy involved fa pro- 
viding sonar for such sensitive 
systems as French and British 
nuclear submarines. 

“The acoustic signatures of 
these submarines is a very sen- 
sitive matter to the French and 
British governments, but we 
have satisfied them we can 
maintain the necessary 
secrecy," he added 

The new group will be opera- 
tional fa two to three months, 
with its operational headquar- 
ters at Sophia-Antipolis in 
southern France. 

Mr Ranque said Thomson’s 
slight predominance in the 








HMS Victorious of the UK Trident fleet, whose sonar equipment will be made by TMS 


joint company did not reflect 
any intervention by the French 
government, which still owns 
the Thomson group that it 
hopes to privatise this year, 
but rather the fact that Thom- 
son brought to the deal “more 
in assets, orders and future 
cash” than GEC. 


He claimed the relative "eco- 
nomic weight" of Thomson 
Sintra was actually greater 
than its 50.1 per cent in TMS. 
This would be offset by an 
undisclosed compensating pay- 
ment by GEC to Thomson. Yet 
while Thomson’s turnover is 
higher, it is heavily dependent 


on exports. The UK company 
has a much larger h ome mar- 
ket 

Exports account for 70 per 
cent to 75 per cent of Thomson 
Sintra's FFrL5bn turnover, in 
contrast with GEC-Marconi, 
which exports about 30 per 
cent of its products, and the 


Ferranti business, now owned 
by GEC and Thomson, which 
exported almost nothing. 

Mr Ranque said Thomson 
Sintra had had to increase 
exports, because French 
defence orders had reached 
“crisis” levels. A long series of 
French sonar programmes, 
which had bolstered Thomson 
over the past decade, were 
coming to an end, and he saw 
little early prospect of substan- 
tial new French orders. French 
business would now account 
for 24 per cent of TMS com- 
bined current turnover, but Mr 
Ranque forecast this could 
sink to 10-15 per cent 

By contrast, the UK govern- 
ment was “sustaining” its 
national sonar market with a 
series of regular orders. As a 
result. Mr Ranque predicted 
that TMS would soon do as 
much as 40 per cent of its busi- 
ness fa the UK, against 34 per 
«»nt at the mrwriftnt Thomson 
is already present fa the UK 
market, and Mr Mike Shaw, 
head of GEC-Marconi sonar, 
said his company had already 
been working smoothly with 
its new partner on the 2087 
towed array frigate sonar. 


Y11.6bn loss on 


UK property arm 


By Wffiam Dawkins In Tokyo 


Fokker plays down chances 
of a takeover in short term 


By Ronald van de Krol 
in Amsterdam 


Fokker, the bankrupt Dutch 
aircraft maker, said yesterday 
that Saab of Sweden and Sam- 
sung of South Korea had dis- 
cussed making a joint 
approach for the company, but 
that they failed to reach agree- 
ment and ultimately decided 
not to bid. 

The Dutch company also 
said exploratory talks held this 
week in Amsterdam with the 
Russian aviation companies 
Tupolev and Yakovlev had 
Med to yield any firm conclu- 
sions. Fokker’s receivers have 
asked the Russians to come 
back with more detailed 
business plans and financial 
strategies. 

“In the short term, a take- 


over of the aircraft-making 
operations by another party 
does not look feasible.” Fokker 
said. 

Nevertheless, Fokker’s three 
court-appointed receivers plan 
to look into the possibility of 
completing the construction of 
12 to 18 more aircraft than pre- 
viously planned. 

When Fokker declared bank- 
ruptcy on March 15, it said it 
would finish making 15 more 

aircraft already ordered by cus- 
tomers, allowing the factory to 
stay open with a skeleton pro- 
duction staff until at least 
June. The additional 12 to 18 
aircraft would keep the factory 
in operation for another eight 
to 12 months, giving Fokker 
more time to seek a longer- 
term solution. 

The company said -some of 


its customers either wanted to 
take delivery of previously 
ordered aircraft or were keen 
to place new coders to round 
out their Fokker fleet “There 
have even been approaches by 
new customers." Fokker said. 

The decision to extend pro- 
duction will require permission 
from the Dutch court which 
granted last month's bank- 
ruptcy application. The move 
wfi) also depend an customers 
being prepared to make pre- 
payments and suppliers agree- 
ing to make deliveries at the 
lower prices which were nego- 
tiated before Fokker went into 
bankruptcy. 

Austrian Airlines this week 
took delivery of a Fokker 70. 
the first aeroplane to roll oft 
the Dutch company's assembly 
Wnpg since it went ban krupt. 


Doherty 
steps down 
in Norcros 
reshuffle 


Harvey Nichols to 
debut this month 


By Motoko Rich 


By Christopher Price 


Tetrocan in C$731m purchase 


Ely Robert Gibbons m Montreal 
and Reuter 


Petro-Canada’. tbfe' country's 
second-biggest integrated oil 
company, is buying the Cana- 
dian operations of the US 
Amerada Hess for C$73 lm 
(US$539m)- The acquisition will 
raise its natural gas capacity 
by nearly half and make it the 
country’s second largest gas 
producer after Amoco Canada. 

Petrocan will raise C$3 65m 
with an equity issue to help 
pay for the deaL 

Amerada Hess Canad a was 
put up for sale by its US parent 
last November. It earned net 
profits of $9m fa 1995 and had 
cash flow of S114m. It is solely 
an upstream producer of gas 
and oil. 

The transaction brings Petro- 


Canada’s gas output to 792m 
cubic feet per day. The com- 
pany said it planned to finance 
about half the purchase with 
the equity issue. It would use 
bank lines of credit for interim 
financing requirements. 

“It would be our intent very 
soon after the dosing of the 
deal to also complete the 
equity issue," said Mr Wesley 
Twiss, Petro-Canada's chief 
financial officer. 

Mr Jim Stanford, chief execu- 
tive, said the properties 
acquired, which are mostly in 
west-central Alberta, were an 
“uncanny” fit with Petro Cana- 
da’s own. “In a lot of the things 
we do, we are right beside each 
other as we do them," he said. 
“And their expertise fa manag- 
ing their operations has been 
very high." 


Petro-Canada plans to rein- 
vest all the cash flow from the 
properties fa exploration and 
production, a jump from the 
approximately 70 p er cent rein- 
vested by Amerada Hess Can- 
ada, Mr Stanford said. 

Of the properties it acquires 
in the deal, Petro-Canada plans 
to divest about C$100m, or 
between 10 and 15 per cent, of 
them within one to two years. 

The deals comes among a 
rash of western Canada oil and 
gas mergers. BJ Services, of 
Houston, plans to offer C$562m 
for Nowsco, Canada’s largest 
oil service company with inter- 
national operations. 

BJ would pay C$27 a share 
for all Nowsco’s shares - 44 
per cent above Nowsco’s aver- 
age dosing price for the previ- 
ous 30 days. 


Home Counties 

Newspapers 

cautious 


Losses at Superscape 
rise despite more sales 


.By Katrina Lowe 


By Paid Taylor 


Home Comities Newspapers 
raised pre-tax profits from 
£l.68m to £i.73m in 1995. but is 
taking a cautious approach to 
1996 because of disappointing 
advertising revenue and slower 
than expected consolidation of 
Herald Newspapers Group. 

Sales in 1995 rose 15 per cent 
to £30.5m, including £1.26m 
from acquisitions. 

There were exceptional costs 
of £167.000 which related to 
reorganisation following the 
purchase of Herald In Novem- 
ber. However, there was excep- 
tional income of £179.000 relat- 
ing to a special dividend from 
the Press Association. 

The dividend for the year is 
maintained at 5.5p with a 
sam e-again !>p final, payable 
from earnings per share of 
11.73p (10.74P). 


Superscape VR, the 3-D virtual 
reality software pioneer, 
showed slightly higher pre-tax 
losses at the interim stage 
despite a threefold increase fa 
turnover. 

Directors said the company 
also warned of higher losses fa 
the second half as it continued 
to build its worldwide market 
position. 

Losses of £897.000 for the six 
months to January 31 com- 
pared with £843.000 last time 
on turnover of £L6m (£478,000). 
Losses per share declined to 
2&lp (J4.9p) and no dividend is 
payable. 

The shares closed on Thurs- 
day down 72p at 598p. 

Directors stated that the lat- 
est results reflected the impact 
of two previously-announced 
contracts with Northern Tele- 


com. These covered the devel- 
opment of tr aining applications 
for the users of Nortel equip- 
ment and a software license 
granting Nortel the exclusive 
light to sell to certain specified 
customers in North America. 

The two contracts had a 
combined value of about $4.lm 
(£2-7m) of which Superscape 
has received $2. 95m to date 
including $1.15m since the end 
of January. 

Given the significance of 
these contracts, directors said 
the revenue was being recog- 
nised over the term of the con- 
tract 

The revenue recognised in 
the current period was $800,000 
(£530,000). Excluding the 
$600,000 taken in the previous 
six months, the balance of rev- 
enue from these contracts of 
$2£0m would be recognised in 
future periods. 


Mr Michael Doherty is 
relinquishing his role as exec- 
utive chairman of Norcros, the 
industrial conglomerate which 
issued a profits warning in 
February and is being refo- 
cused as a bathroom and 
ceramics group. 

The move, to non-executive 
phnh-mnn, ends an eight-year 
managerial role for Mr 
Doherty, 56, who joined Nor- 
cros as chief executive from 
Cope Allman Interna tional- He 
became Hiairman fa 1993. 

The warning in February of 
losses for the current year and 
the prospect of a dividend cut 
knocked 20 per cent from the 
share price. 

Mr Doherty denied that his 
move was connected with the 
company's poor performance 
and said it had been planned 
since he became chairman. 

Norcros also announced on 
Thursday that it was selling 
its code labelling business to . 
Sato Corporation of Japan for 
£2L5m. The sale is the first 
from within the four-part 
printing and packaging busi- 
ness. It conies a we* after the 
group sold its half share in a 
steel strip business to British 
Steel for £6^m. 

The proceeds from both dis- 
posals will be used to reduce 
debt from £50m to £26m, with 
gearing halving to 20 per cent 

However, the sale of Auto- 
print and Norprint, two of the 
three remaining print and 
packaging bu si nesses, is likely 
to be delayed because of 
restr ucturi ng- A £5 3m charge 
will be taken in 1995-96. 

Other management changes 
include, Mr Joe Matthews, 
managing director of the 
ceramics division, becoming 
group chief executive and Mr 
David Hamilton, company sec- 
retary, joining the board as 
operations director. 

Mr Gavin Morris and Mr 
Julian Sheffield, finance and 
non-executive directors respec- 
tively, have resigned. Mr Rob- 
ert Alcock, who heads the 
print and packaging business, 
is also leaving the company. 


Harvey Nichols, the Princess of 
Wales' favourite department 
store, is coming to the market 
this month via a placing of 
existing shares. 

Dickson Concepts, the Hong 
Kong luxury goods retailer 
which bought the Knights- 
bridge store from Burtons fa 
1991 few £51m, will sell up to 
49.9 per cent of its holding. 

At an indicative price range 
of 240p-270p, Dickson’s stake 
will be valued at £655m-£74.1m 
and the whole group at £132m- 
£14&5m. 

Dickson, which has invested 
a further £17m restoring the 
luxury goods and fashion 
retailer to profitability, should 
recoup its investment 

Since Dickson acquired Har- 
vey Nichols, the favourite 
haunt of the Sloane Ranger bag 
been transformed from a loss- 
making department store to a 
profitable - estimated at £9.1m 
fa the year to March 30 - con- 


cession-oriented retailer. 

At that level, the group 
would be floating at a historic 
p/e range of 23 to 26. compared 
with the sector p/e of 17. The 
notional dividend is 4.2p. cov- 
ered 2J> times. 

Morgan Stanley is sponsor, 
book-runner and co-broker 
with HSBC James Capel to the 
flotation. The pathfinder pro- 
spectus, published on Thurs- 
day, said Dickson had granted 
Morgan Stanley the option to 
purchase up to 3.45m shares at 
tiie placing price, which will be 
announced on April 22. 

Following the placing of 24m 
shares. Dickson will own 56.4 
per cent of the company - or 
50.1 per cent if the over-allot- 
ment option is exercised. 

Mr Joseph Wan, chief execu- 
tive. said that Dickson had 
always planned to float Harvey 
Nichols about five years after 
the acquisition. He said the 
group would finance its expan- 
sion ambitions through its 
in ternal cash generation. 


Sumitomo Corporation, the 
Japanese trading company, has 
liquidated its wholly owned 
UK property subsidiary, Sumi- 
corp Properties, written off its 
Yll.6bn ($108.5m) loss and 
taken direct control of its main 
asset, half ownership of a City 
of London office building. 

The move, the latest example 
of a Japanese company taking 
a large loss on foreign property 
investments, was aimed at 
reducing the cost of financing 
the riverside building. Vinters' 
Place, equally owned with 
Wates, the UK property group. 

Mr Noriaki Shimazaki. Sumi- 
tomo's general manager for 
accounting, said having the 
asset wi thin the bank would 
make it easier to provide direct 
yen loans, taking advantage of 
the Japanese currency’s 
strength and low Japanese 
interest rates. 

Mr Shimazaki said the write- 
off reflected foreign exchange 
losses from sterling's steep fall 
against the yen, plus the build- 
ing's decline fa value since its 
construction in 1992. In the 
intervening period, he esti- 
mated city rentals had declined 
50 per cent. 

Sumitomo believes the Lon- 
don commercial property mar- 
ket is now starting to recover. 
Vintners' Place is 75 per cent 
occupied and the partners are 
seeking tenants to fill the 


remaining space. Sunucorp 
Properties was founded five 
years ago as part of an assault 
on the London market by for- 
eign investors mistakenly con- 
fident that the rise in values 
would continue. 

The loss, while large even by 
Sumitomo’s standards, would 
have no impact on annual prof- 
its, the company said. More 
than half of it, Y5.5bn, would 
be covered by the profit on the 
sale of a property fa Osaka. 
Japan, to Sumitomo Life insur- 
ance, which holds a 5.5 per 
cent stake in the trading com- 
pany. Cooperation of this kind 
is not unusual among members 
of the same Japanese keiretsu 
corporate family. 

Sumitomo Corporation said 
there was therefore no impor- 
tant change to its existing pro- 
jection of a Y38bn recurring 
profit - before tax and recur- 
ring items - in the year just 
ended, a 7 per cent increase on 
last year's figure of Y35^1bn. 

After the liquidation, Sumi- 
tomo will take over its UK 
property unit's £36m ($54 .9m) 
of loans to Vinters' Place. Half 
of that total is financed in yen 
and that proportion would 
increase if and when more fin- 
ancing was required, said Mr 
Shimazaki. Sumitomo had no 
clear indications of the future 
funding needed by Vinters' 
Place, but was prepared to 
increase its loans to cover any 
future losses. 


Eurotunnel carryings 
climb sharply in March 


By Charles Batchelor, 
Transport Correspondent 


Eurotunnel carried twice as 
many cars and trucks this 
March as 12 months earlier, 
achieving a daily record of 
50.000 passengers in the last 
Saturday of the month. 

A total of 152375 cars, motor 
cycles and caravans were car- 
ried, compared with 72£18 in 
March 1995, the company said. 
This represented a 31 per cent 
increase on the previous 
month. 

In addition. 5.619 coaches 


were carried. Truck numbers 
have increased to 46,534 (22£80 
a year earlier ) and were 
unchanged on the figures in 
February 1996. In March 1995 
Eurotunnel did not have single 
decker shuttle wagons avail- 
able to take coaches. 

On March 30, Eurotunnel's 
busiest day, it carried 8,430 
vehicles, including 586 coach- 
es. 

Eurostar train numbers dou- 
bled to 1,116 (506), while the 
number of freight trains rose 
to 623 (432), on a 12-month com- 
parison. 


Lesley Summer 
0171 873 3308 


Weekend Business 


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times weekend APRIL 6/APRIL 7/APRIL 8 IMS 


COMPANIES AND FINANCE: UK 


BET claims ‘dirty tactics’ by Rentokil 


By Tim Burt 

BET. the business services 
group fighting a £1.9bn take- 
over bid by RentokiL has com- 
plained to the Takeover Panel 
over what it claims are dirty 
tactics by its rivaL 

The company told the panel 
that it suspected Rentokil or 
its advisers of being the source 
of market rumours suggesting 
it was coming under pressure 
from institutional investors to 

BT awaits 
Chinese 
reaction 
on C&W 

By Alan Cane in London and 
John Ridding in Hong Kong 

Chinn's view of the proposed 
merger of British Telecommu- 
nications and Cable and Wire- 
less. the two largest UK tele- 
coms groups, could become 
clear following a meeting in 
Beijmg next week of top BT 
officials with the Chinese Min- 
istry of Post and Telecommuni- 
cations. 

China's interest in the 
merger, which would create 
one or the world's largest tele- 
coms groups with a market 
capitalisation of £33bn. arises 
from Cable and Wireless's 
majority ownership of Hong- 
kong Telecom, one of the most 
strategically important opera- 
tors in Asia. 

"Given Hong Kong’s return 
to Chinese sovereignty next 
year and Hongkong Telecom's 
business interests on the main- 
land. BT will be anxious to get 
Beijing's blessing", said one 
Hong Kong telecoms analyst. 

There are no restrictions on 
foreign ownership of telecoms 
companies in Hong Kong and 
there are no provisions for Chi- 
na's approval of ownership 
changes or licence awards in 
the treaties governing Hong 
Kong's handover to China next 
year. 

Beijing, however, has sought 
to assert its influence in large 
contracts and franchises in 
Hong Kong which span the 
handover. China delayed 
approval for a new container 
terminal in the territory and 
continues to block the award 
of mobile telecoms licences by 
the Hong Kong government, 
citing disagreements over the 
development of the markeL 

It is thought that the BT 
executive travelling to China 
may be Mr Alfred Mockett, 
managing director of interna- 
tional operations. 

It seems certain that the Chi- 
nese authorities will want to 
quiz the BT delegation on the 
progress of the negotiations. 

Hongkong Telecom's strat- 
egy in China also underlines 
the importance of Beijing’s 
backing. The group and its par- 
ent company have agreed sig- 
oiGcant investments in China, 
including a 1994 agreement to 
spend S300m <£197m) on build- 
ing networks. 

They have also developed 
close business ties. Dr Brian 
Smith. C&W chairman, visited 
Chinj two months ago in the 
company of Mr Rod Olsen, act- 
ing chief executive, and Mr 
Jonathan Solomon, executive 
director of srmtegy. 

Industry observers in Hong 
Kong said that in the case of a 
merger with C&W. BT would 
seek to n?;issure Beijing con- 
cerning Hongkong Telecom's 
ongoing investments. 

The two companies' financial 
advisers. N.M. Rothschild for 
BT and Goldman Sachs for 
C&W. wen? tliis week continu- 
ing with attempts to resolve 
the regulatory, business and 
political barriers which stand 
in the way of the merger. 

See Lex 


agree a recommended offer. 

Last week, both Legal & Gen- 
eral and M&G Investment Man- 
agement were said to have 
urged BET to consider an 
agreed takeover. 

L&G denied it had discussed 
such a possibility. M&G 
declined to comment, although 
privately officials said it had 
not yet spoken to BET. 

The panel, which has already 
intervened twice during the 
bid to remind Rentokil and its 


advisers of their obligations 
under the takeover code, was 
said to be studying BET'S 
claims and to have raised them 
with RentokiL 

Meanwhile, Sir Christopher 

Harding, chair man of BET, 
accused Rentokil of hiding 
behind "cheap soundbites" by 
criticising its defence. Rentokil 
last week queried BET'S cash 
management and said it was 
heavily indebted. 

Sir Christopher, however. 


said: "Those absurd comments 
only serve to emphasise Rento- 
kil’s fundamental lack of 
understanding of BET’s 
strength and value.” 

Rejecting suggestions that 
its net debt exceeded ElOQm, 
Sir Christopher said borrow- 
ings had fallen from £ll4m at 
midway to £60m on March 31. 

Mr Clive Thompson, Rento 
kii’s chief executive, hit back 
by saying: "Despite BET’s 
claims to be cash generative, it 


is not It cannot even finance 
the existing dividend of £39m 
without recourse to borrow- 
ings. let alone further invest- 
ment and acquisitions." 

On Thursday, shares in BET 
rose 1 '/ip to 207p - a high for 
the year - while Rentokil 
gained 6‘Ap to At that 

level, its offer of nine new 
shares and SQOp cash for every 
20 BET shares values its target 
at 204 '/ip a share. There is a 
cash alternative of 179'.ip, 


McAlpine falls 
£23.5m into red 


By Motoko Rich 

Losses on the closure of its 
general building division and 
other businesses forced Alfred 
McAlpine. the construction 
group, into the red last 
year. 

Pre-tax losses of £23.5m com- 
pared with £10.7m profits in 
the 14 months to December 31 
1994. The group changed its 
year-end from October to 
December at the end of 1994, 
making direct comparisons dif- 
ficult. 

Mr Oliver Whitehead, chief 
executive, said the bulk of the 
£34. 7m exceptional charges 
were associated with the clo- 
sure of the genera] building 
business, which made losses of 
£6.8m (£7.7ml. 

He said quitting that busi- 
ness. which built private sector 
offices, shops, factories and 
warehouses, would allow the 
group to focus on special pro- 
jects in sports and under the 
private finance initiative. 

The group has already 
secured a contract to build a 
football stadium in Blackpool 
and is the preferred bidder 
to build a hospital in Here- 
ford. 

“While our general b uilding 
business had been generating 
sales up to £250m, it was mak- 
ing no money," said Mr White- 
head. “I am anticipating that 
the special projects business 
will fluctuate between £50m 
and £100m in sales but with 


more reliable profitability.” 

Civil engineering profits fell 
to £200,000 (£I.7m) and the 
group took an exceptional 
charge of £1.2m. Profits in 
housebuilding fell to £11.5m 
(£i7.9m). 

In the US division, operating 
profits of £3.4m compared 
with £1.7m in the 14 month 
period. 

Losses per share were 37.2p 
(earnings of 10.2p). The final 
dividend is held at 4p. making 
a total of 7p, the same as for 
the previous 14 months. 

The shares rose 4p to ITSp on 
Thursday. 

• COMMENT 

The rise in McAlpine's shares 
suggests the City believes the 
group has made a brave move 
in closing businesses. By tak- 
ing the big hit now and cutting 
costs in its profitable civil engi- 
neering division, the group has 
put itself in a position to move 
forward unhindered by the 
general building albatross. 
However, recovery in the hous- 
ing sector is likely to be slow 
and in its new special projects 
business, it will be competing 
with larger construction com- 
panies on the private finance 
initiative. On pre-tax profit 
forecasts of £12. 8m for 1996, the 
shares are trading on a p/e of 
13.4. a discount to the market 
Although bid rumours could 
add some shine to the share 
price, on its own, that seems 
fair value. 



A OTtoy Amvnod 

Oliver Whitehead. (left) and Gavin Morris, finance director 


Harland and Wolff reduces losses 


By John Murray Brown 
in Dublin 

Harland and Wolff, the Belfast 
shipyard, reported a reduction 
in pre-tax losses from £16.9m to 
£6.Sm for 1995. helped by a 
drop in the provision made for 
future orders. 

The Northern Ireland ship- 
builder, which this week 
secured a contract worth an 
estimated £100m to build a 
floating production vessel for 
British Petroleum, incurred an 
operating loss on continuing 
operations of £9.9m f£21.9m). 

The company, which was pri- 
vatised in 1989, saw turnover 

Elys hits back 
at Panther bid 

Tbe directors of Elys 
(Wimbledon), tbe department 
store, yesterday told share- 
holders they unanimously 
believed the offer from Pan- 
ther Securities failed to reflect 
the valne of the company. 

Elys said 44 per cent of the 
Panther offer was represented 
by Elys' own cash balances, 
while the bid valued Elys' 
remaining assets “at a mere 
52p in tbe £1”. 

Trustees representing 39.17 
per cent of the shares had 
informed the board it was not 
their intention to accept the 
present offer. Panther has 
made a two-tier offer for the 
70.04 per cent of Elys shares it 
does not already own. 


down 8 per cent from £89m to 
gram. However, cost of sales 
were cut by almost £20m to 
£86.2m, helped by an £8m 
decrease in the provision for 
estimated future losses on con- 
tracts. 

Mr Per Nielsen, chief execu- 
tive, said the results were 
adversely affected by increased 
losses in the ship repair divi- 
sion. cost increases in two 
tanker contracts, and problems 
in the yard's paint division. 

He said the market for con- 
ventional tankers was “at 
unrealistically low levels" as a 
result of “overcapacity and the 
continued use of direct and 


indirect subsidies by some 
countries” 

Mr Fred Olsen, chairman, 
said 1995 had been a "year of 
transition" but expressed confi- 
dence the company had reposi- 
tioned itself to take advantage 
of increased demand for float- 
ing platforms, estimated at 
between 30 and 40 over the 
next 5 years. 

Harland and Wolff is in a 
consortium with BP, Brown & 
Root UK. Single Buoy Moor- 
ings of Monaco and Coflexip 
Stena Offshore to design and 
build a surface production 
facility for the deep-water field 
of SchiehaHion. 135 miles west 


of Shetland. The deal is worth 
£400m. 

Mr Nielsen, said the com- 
pany was not concentrating 
exclusively on new construc- 
tion, but would also consider 
conversions of existing tankers 
to floating rigs. “We are cau- 
tiously optimistic that we will 
be successful in securing at 
least one major conversion 
project during 1996." 

The results include increased 
bank borrowings through a 
£25. 4m 5-year loan at 7.5 per 
cent to finance a capesiza bulk 
carrier, which is chartered by 
Trassey Shipping, its shipping 
subsidiary. 


New valuations hit Bilton 


By Simon London, 

Property Correspondent 

Falling industrial property 
values were behind a 3.4 per 
cent dip to 315p in net assets 
per share over 1995 at Bilton, 
the property company which 
specialises in the industrial 
sector. 

The year-end property valua- 
tion, carried out by directors 
rather than external valuers, 
resulted in a 4 per cent decline 
to £306m In the value of the 
investment portfolio. 

The company, in which the 
rounding Bilton family controls 
a 29 per cent stake, let 350,000 
sq ft of space. Less than 8 per 
cent of the portfolio is now 


vacant Bilton's biggest devel- 
opment project is at South 
Ruislip. west London, where it 
let a 62,000 sq ft distribution 
depot and plans to build a 
retail warehouse park. 

Pre-tax profits declined to 
£13.21X1, against £18.6m. which 
included a £800.000 contribu- 
tion from sales of investment 
property. Gross rental Income 
was unchanged at g« gm. 

The decline In property val- 
ues led to an increase In gear- 
ing from 10.6 per cent to 122J 
per cent 

Earnings per share declined 
to I4.3lp <l4.75p). The proposed 
final dividend is 7.44p, making 
a total of 10.33p, an increase of 
4 per cent 


m COMMENT 

Bilton's defensive virtues 
served shareholders well 
during recession. But the 
combination of very low 
gearing and conservative 
management have few 
attractions when investors can 
scent a gentle upswing. 
Improving Bilton’s standard of 
financial disclosure might help 
reduce the very wide discount 
to net assets at which the 
shares now trade. Employing 
external valuers, in line with 
industry best practice, would 
also help. In the meantime 
shareholders are left with the 
comfort of a 6 per cent yield 
and little obvious downside 
risk. 


The fading attraction of being mutual 

Alison Smith and Clay Harris explain current uncertainty among building societies 

U ncertainty is becoming society, is on the brink of was not encouraging feelers, it flotation to its members, if a tion such as a large insu 

an everyday condition announcing that it is being would consider any seriously, purchaser made a generous, group, which needs a 

for the formerly staid bought. B&W's official “We've grown big by listening public offer, it might well find street presence, than to a 


U ncertainty is becoming 
an everyday condition 
for the formerly staid 
building societies sector. But 
even by these standards, Lhe 
amount of turmoil over the 
past few days has been 
unusual. At present, among 
the 10 largest the destinies of 
three are in doubt - leaving 
aside those such as Halifax and 
Alliance & Leicester on a dear 
track to become banks. 

Woolwich, the third largest, 
announced in January its 
plans to convert to a bank. But 
despite the best efforts of Mr 
Donald Kirkham, acting chief 
executive, to insist those plans 
remain on course, the ousting 
of Mr Peter Robinson as chief 
executive this week has raised 
questions about its future. 

The very next day Northern 
Rock, the" eighth largest soci- 
ety. ann ounced its plan to float 
as a bank next year. 

The week also saw a resur- 
gence of speculation that Bris- 
tol & West, the ninth largest 


society, is on the brink of 
announcing that it is being 
bought. B&W's official 
response is that it is keeping 
its options open. But Lhe lon- 
ger it maintains this line, thp 
more likely it will lose its sta- 
tus as an independent mutual 
organisation. 

The fates of the three societ- 
ies may well be interwoven, as 
decisions affecting one impact 
on another. 

For example, in its search for 
a new chief executive. Wool- 
wich might choose someone 
who headed a building society 
with which it could merge. 

In terms of adding branches 
where Woolwich has poor cov- 
erage. the most likely runners 
would be Northern Rock, 
headed by Mr Chris Sharp, or 
Birmingham Midshires, headed 
by Mr Mike Jackson. 

Equally, Woolwich may now 
be vulnerable to approaches 
from potential purchasers 
which it rejected before. Mr 
Kirkham said that although it 


was not encouraging feelers, it 
would consider any seriously. 
“We've grown big by listening 
to propositions and rejecting 
the silly ones," he said. 

The number of organisations 
large enough to pay perhaps 
£3 bn or more for Woolwich is 
relatively small. They include 
Prudential, the UK's largest 
life assurance group, which 
was also last week linked to 
B&W. The Pru may still be set- 
ting Its sights on a mutual life 
assurer, but if it could buy 
Woolwich it would probably 
prefer that rather than buying 
B&W. 

"Woolwich is big enough to 
get some protection in terms of 
sheer size," said Mr Rob 
Thomas, societies analyst at 
UBS. "But Northern Rock can- 
not rely on size in the way 
Woolwich can. and this gives it 
less protection from potential 
takeover." 

Though the Rock has said 
that it does not intend to put 
any option other than a pure 


flotation to its members, if a 
purchaser made a generous, 
public offer, it might well find 
it hard to resist The fact that 
any approach would have to be 
done on a hostile basis may cut 
down, but does not eliminate, 
the number of chief executives 
who would pursue it 

Mr Thomas believes the 
Rock has “a fighting chance" 
of floating on its own. Its strat- 
egy, however, carries more risk 
than that of B&W. "Bristol & 
West’s management appear to 
have recognised that they are 
not large enough or strong 
enough to float," he said. 

B&W’s denial last week that 
it was about to be bought by 
National Australia Group, 
which already owns some 
retail hanks in the UK, has not 
ended tbe expectation that it 
will be picked up by another 
organisation. 

Its branch network is con- 
centrated in south-west 
England, and might well be 
more valuable to an organisa- 


tion such as a large insurance 
group, which needs a high 
street presence, than to a retail 
bank with good distribution. 

The society has had a diffi- 
cult past Under Mr Tony Fitz- 
simons. its former chief execu- 
tive who left abruptly in 
September 1993, It went in for 
over-expansionist lending, and 
spent significant amounts on 
acquisitions and technology. 
B&W has only just sold the last 
remnants of Hamptons, tbe 
estate agency it bought during 
Mr FUzsimons’ tenure. 

Over the past few years, 
however, its performance has 
generally been improving. It is 
reducing the range of activities 
it undertakes with the aim of 
becoming specialised in provid- 
ing mortgages, savings and 
investments. 

It is not there yet but the 
strategy of streamlining could 
sene it well, even if only to 
increase Its value, rather thaw 
enabling it to remain indepen- 
dent and mutuaL 


Rentokil has until next Fri- 
day to increase its offer, 
declare the existing bid final or 
allow it to lapse. Ih its annual 
report, published yesterday, 
the company said it would 
appoint two new non-executive 
directors if it completed the 
acquisition. 

The report also showed that 
Mr Thompson's salary and ben- 
efits rose from £742,000 to 
£857,000, including a £320,000 
performance-related bonus. 


Five 
Pearson 
directors 
in £1.7m 
share-out 

Five directors of Pearson 
shared a £l.69m share bonus 
in 1995, according to the 
media group's report and 
accounts published on Thurs- 
day. Tbe payments were trig- 
gered by the performance of 
the Pearson share price in the 
previous three years. 

As a result, the total salary 
and bonus package paid to 
Lord Blakenham, the chair- 
man, rose 65 per cent to 
£750,000, including a £413,000 
share payment from the three- 
year incentive plan. 

Mr Frank Barlow, managing 
director, saw his total remu- 
neration increase 59 per cent 
to £783,000. also including a 
£413,000 share bonus. 

The bonuses also contrib- 
uted to a 59 per cent rise for 
Mr Mark Burrell development 
director, who received 
£529,000, former finance direc- 
tor Mr James Joll’s 53 per cent 
rise to £554.000 and deputy 

managing director Mr David 
Veit’s, 22 per cent Increase to 
£621,000. 

Pearson, which owns the 
Financial Times,- said the 
group’s shareholder return 
had outperformed the average 
of FT-SE 100 companies by 83 
per cent in the three years to 
the end of 1995, which had 
triggered the maximum award 
of shares under the incentive 
share plan. 

On Thursday Pearson's 
share (nice rose 20p to 721p, 
dose to an all-time high. The 
shares have been buoyed by 
bid speculation, a recent fea- 
ture of the media sector. 

Last month, Pearson 
reported a 23 per cent rise in 
1995 pre-tax profits to £365m. 
The result was boosted by 
capital gains of £138m from 
the sale of a holding in 
BSkyB. 

Operating profits fell by 5 
per cent to £260m, including a 
near-£19m contribution from 
acquisitions. Sales increased 
18 per cent to £l-83bn. 


Schroders 
chief gets 
total £2.2m 

By Nicholas Denton 

Schroders, having last month 
initiated an efficiency review 
in an effort to control costs, 
disclosed figures showing that 
its chairman was the most 
highly rewarded head of any 
UK investment bank last year. 

Mr Win Bischoff appointed 
chairman last year after 11 
years as chief executive, 
received a package worth 
£2.2m in 1995. The eight exec- 
utive directors received £&9m 
between them. 

Although Mr BischofFs basic 
salary was a relatively modest 
£175,000, it was boosted by a 
complicated array of bonuses. 
Mr Bischoff received an 
annual bonus of £455,000, a 
cash payment under the 
“long-term incentive” scheme 
of £231,000, and a £300,000 
contribution to his pension “in 
lieu of bonus”. 

These items were broadly 
unchanged, in line with the 
static profits which Schroders 
reported last month. But Mr 
Bischoff also made a film 
profit on the exercise of 
120,000 executive share 
options accumulated in previ- 
ous years. 

He crystallised his options 
close to the peak in Schroders' 
share price last year, when the 
bank was subject to heavy 
takeover speculation. Mr Bis- 
choff has consistently main- 
tained Schroders' continued 
commitment to independence. 

Mr BischofFs remuneration 
is unexceptional by the stan- 
dards of US investment banks 
such as Morgan Stanley, which 
paid its chair man S6.7m 
(£4.4m) last year. And share- 
holders are also beneficiaries 
of a share price which has tri- 
pled since the start of 1993. 

Increased pay for executive 
directors contributed to a rise 
last year of the cost-income 
ratio from 68 per emit to 76 
per cent, which Schroders said 
it wanted to reverse. 


NEWS DIGEST 

Reckitt makes 

$123m disposal 

RAckitt & Caiman has sold for 5123m <£80.9m) its US personal 
products division, as part of its refocusing on household clean- 
ers and related products following its £lbn purchase last year 
of L&F from Eastman Kodak. . .. . 

The buyer is JW Childs Associates, a Massachusetts Invest- 
ment management concern which is Paying SlOSmm cash and 
the balance in a seven-and-a-half year subordinated note. 

Brands sold include Wet Ones moist towdettes. Chubs thick 
babv wipes Binaca breath freshener, and Ogilvie home perma- 
neats hair care products. The division generated operating 
profits of about JlOm era SllOm turnover last year. Us net 
tangible assets at year end were $30m. 

The sale brings to about £370m tbe money Reckitt has raised 
from disposals since the L&F purchase. Its goal is for total 
proceeds of £400m. but it declined to say what else was on the 
block, ft has used the money to pay down net debt which 
stood at ysafim at the end of 1995. Roderick Oram 

Ennemix complains to Panel 

fipqiimiv the aggregates company, has complained to the 
Takeover Panel about statements in a document issued by Its 
predator, Redland. the building materials group. 

The document questioned Ennemix’s claim that its net asset 
value was 50p. Redland cited a valuation carried out by Grim, 
ley, tbe chartered surveyor, which said that 41p of the value 
was attributable to “minerals and landfill void reserves for 
which no planning consents exist". 

Tr.nnnmiT said Grimley had not made a “Red Book" valuation 
- the Red Book is the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors 
Appraisal and Valuation Manual. Redland admitted this, say 
ing Grimley had had to make “various assumptions". 

Redland has bid 32p a share for Ennemix, valuing the 
company at £5.3m. Redland has so far acquired 29.9 per cent of 
the shares, and holds convertible preference shares that would 
raise the total to 33.1 percent Simon Kuper 

Ex-Aijo man's 11% pay rise 

Mr Alain Soul as. the ousted chief executive of Arjo Wiggins 
Appleton, received an 11 per pay increase last year, in which 
the Anglo-French paper group saw a sharp fall in profits. 

The annual report showed Mr Souios received a £617,000 
(£555.000) pay and benefits package, including an increased 
pension contribution of £133.000 (£126.000). He is also expected 
to receive a severance package worth almost £l-3m following 
his abrupt departure last month. 

Aijo said it had also paid £366,796 to Giovanni Agnelli, the 
Italian holding company with an indirect holding in the group. 
Agnelli seconded Mr Gala ten di Genola. one of its executives, 
as an adviser on Aijo's E56m acquisition last year of Sottrici 
Distribuzione. the Italian paper merchant 
• Laird Group, which this week announced a 39 per cent 
increase in full-year profits, paid Mr Ian Arnett, chief exeat 
five. £312,000 (£271,000) in 1995. Tim Burt 

Write-offs take toll on Hornby 

Write-offs totalling £4.75m left Hornby Group, the maker of toy 
and model products, with a pre-tax deficit of £43m for 1995, 
against a £611,000 profit previously. 

Turnover for the 12 months - the company has changed its 
year end to March 31 - rose 7 per cent to £33.6m following a 16 
per cent like-fbr-like increase in sales of core products. Mr 
Peter Newey, chairman, said current sales were meeting 
expectations. 

Operating profits before exceptional climb ed 52 per cent to 
£l.6lm in 1995, reflecting increased sales and higher margins. 

Last month's sale of Norman Fletcher resulted in a £4. 06m 
write-off while the write-off of tbe Investment in San Fran- 
cisco Toymakers led to a charge of £694,000. In addition, 
reorganisation within Hornby Hobbies produced redundancy 
costs of £280,000. 

Referring to the departure of director Mr Keith Ness In 
October. Mr Newey said that although a theoretical compensa- 
tion payment could be "substantial", the board had concluded, 
after taking advice, that Mr Ness was "unlikely to recover the 
full amount of his claim", which Hornby is contesting. 

Hornby expected to agree a settlement at a lower figure, but 
as the amount was uncertain, no provision had been made in 
the results. Gary Evans 

Loss adjusting lift for Hambro 

Shares in Hambro insurance 
Hmnbro Insurance Services Services rose lOp to 94p on 

Thursday after the group 
Share prica since notation (pence) announced that profits for the 

ire: year to March 31 would be 

160 — | “materially higher" than the 

150 tiL £8m-£9m which analysts had 

140 been forecasting. 

■_ Mr Tony Kay of Panmura 

_ j Gordon, the house broker, 

120 — - n--r said the revised forecast was 

no now for £ll_m pre-tax with 

too Vj forecast earnings per share 

go % - pi up from 8J3p to 10.3p. 

The loss adjusting side had 

| . , ? , received an "exceptional 

70 1093 94 as aa number of claims’ 1 , with work 

_ __ _V tor non-life companies after 

souroacFTExw the winter freeze being partic- 

ularly strong. In the previous year profits fell to £8. 03m follow- 
ing a poor performance from the loss adjusting The 
company then said it would restructure that business. 

Bertie Bassett bags popcorn 

Trebor Bassett, the sugar confectionery subsidiary of Cadbury 
Schweppes, is cratering the £33m UK popcorn market via the 
purchase of Portfolio Foods, which makes the Butterkist 
brand. 

Portfolio, which trades as Craven Kefller, makes confection- 
ery and popcorn, and employs 700 people. Sales in 1994-95 were 
£42m Assets at the end of March 1995 were £12m. 

Cadbury has not disclosed the purchase price, but it is being 
funded through debt facilities. The deal is subject to regula- 
tory approval. 

BWI advances to £3.4m 

BWL, the packaging and process machinery maker, increased 
interim pre-tax profits by 14 per cent to £3.44m, on the hack of 
sig nifi cant growth in the vision division. Turnover lor the six 
months to January 31 was £44. 6m f£42m). 

Profit figures given in Thursday’s Financial Times were 
incorrect 


MONTHLY AVERAGES OF STOCK INDICES 


Source: FT ExM 


FT-SE Actuaries tndteea 
100 Index 3702 J 

Mid 250 4279.7 

360 Share 1874.0 

Non -Financial 195349 

F i n a nci a l Group 2837,38 

A*-Share 1836.04 

Eurotrack 100 1597.90 

Euratrack 200 1668.24 

FT/S&P-A World Index 207.28 

FT Indices 

Government Securities 92.81 

Fixed Interest 111.22 

Otiinaiy 27609 

Gold Mines 2282.54 

SEAQ Bargains (5.00pm) 38,859 


3738.1 
4173a 
1864 .3 
1941.86 
2942.72 
1839.78 

1549.02 

1653.97 

208.26 


94.00 

112.72 

2748.0 

238024 

32,296 


371 5 A 

4064.1 

1845.1 
1919.92 
2915.37 
1819.13 

1529.63 

1627.18 

202.41 

95.68 
114.47 
2749.6 
2198 A0 
30753 


FT-SE 100 
FT-SE Mid 250 
FT-SE 360 
FT -A AB-Share 
Ordinary 


Highest doee March Lowest doss March 


3777.1 5th 

4326.7 28th 
1889.0 5th 
1864.59 5th 

2807.8 «h 


3639.5 12th 
4212-0 11th 

1830.3 12th : 

1810.03 12» 
2729.9 12th 




i 


l 

i 


7 









'Hkcs 


ill 


I 


<" I’anH 


U : p.i> rise 




FINANClAJL TIMES 


WEEKEND APRIL 6/APRIL 7/ APRIL S 1996 


A 


_ WEEK IN THE MARKETS 

3 Squeeze 
lifts sugar 
futures 

Nearby positions on the 
London Commodity Exchange 
white sugar market set fresh 
IiCwjf-contraot highs on Thurs- 
day as a relentless technical 
squeeze sent prices still higher 
■ August, the second month, was 
$390 a tonne in late trading, up 
$6.10 on the day and $20.90 on 
the week, 

■“At the moment it looks like 
people who are trying to physU 
rally cover something can't do 
tt and are having to pay up," a 
trader told the Reuters news 
agency. - Vou’re basically 
seeing people who are having 
to get out of positions or 
people who are long of the 
market who are Just taking it 
up." 

It was suggested that the 
current firmness of the London 
market could .be attributed to 
nndeliverable white sugar 
hedged against the May con- 
tract and the expected supply 
ti g h t ne ss of quality whites into 
the summer months. 

.. “Nobody. can sell any physi- 
cal sugar, it's priced too hi gh 
and none of the trade houses 
can create any physical off- 
take,” said a trader. 

In its latest Sugar Situation 
report London-based trade 
house EJD. F. Man said support 
for nearby delivery sugar 
prices had for some time been 
attributed to the absence of 
physical supplies. “But now 
that the physical raw sugar 
exports are more readily avail- 
able and greater supplies from 
southern hemisphere origins 
are expected to get under way 
in late May early June, this 
support is attributed more to 
the technical issue of the segres 
gation of the terminal [futures] 
and the physical markets and 
logistical difficulties slowing 
the pace of available raw sugar 
supplies to the market” 

Man said 1996 still appeared 
to be “a year of two halves”, 
with increased raw sugar sup- 
plies in the second half expec- 
ted to put pices under pres- 
sure. “The whites market, 

WEEKLY PRICE CHANGES 



Latest 

price* 

Qtanga 
en weak 

Yaer 

■BO 

Hgh 

108 

Low 

Gold per troy oz. 

$393.50 

-3D5 

smoo 

$415.40 

$373.0 

Sitaer per tray oz 

301. 80p 

-aas 

338.50p 

383DQP 

207. Bflp 

Akjnuneun 89.7% (cadi) 

$TG05D 

-38.0 

$18405 

Si 676.0 

$1529.5 

. .Copper Gracia A (cash) 

62489.0 

-65.0 

S2959D 

32810.0 

S2492D 

Lend (cast)) 

$826.0 

+12D 

S60Z5 

SGZ7£ 

$8805 

Nickel [cash] 

$8045 

-145 

$76100 

sarasD 

$7455 

Zinc SHG (esah) 

$1057.0 

. -11 

*1054.5 

$1082.0 

$9905 

Tin (cash) . 

SBdOO 

-20 

SS820D 

S&120.0 

*5960.0 

Cocoa Futures May 

EB85 

-a 

£982 

£1179 

£883 

Caries Futures May 

C187T 

-22 

£3049 

£2805 

£1570 

Sugar (LDP Raw) 

3308D 


$380.40 

$3307 

S304.9 

Boriey Fittses May 

E112.40 

+025 

£10200 

?I27.5. 

B07D. . 

Went Fiores. May ■ 

.£12*05- 

-oao 

£11625- 

£134.1 - 

B69KIS- 

Ccnon Ouuoak AWdex 

83D5 

+090 

11050 

S7.B5 

B2D0 

tatoo) (84s 3up*0 

444P 


525p - 

432p 

438p 

Ol (Brent Btand) 

520. 15X 

■ +080 

*1021 

$20.16 

$1090 


COMMODITIES AND AGRICULTURE 


however, appears to have been 
stripped into many sections 
with tightness of European 
Union quality sugar likely to 
persist throughout the year in 
contrast to the overall avail- 
ability of the poorer quality 
whites elsewhere. It concluded 
that, because of logistical diffi- 
culties, “a dearth of tanderable 
origins and the tightness in 
physical European white sugar 
supplies are limiting the pros- 
pect of falling sugar prices". 

Oth e LCB contracts had 
ten din g lower during the week, 
notably the coffee market, in 
which nearby positions were 
more than $100 a tonne down 
at one point. But short-cover- 
ing and book-squaring ahead of 
the long weekend reduced 
losses on Thursday. 

Cocoa’s fall had been much 
more modest and the reapp ea r- 
ance of US investment fund 
buying on Wednesday night 
was enough to send nearby 
futures values to fresh four- 
month highs on Thursday. The 
July position reached £1,038 a 
tonne before retreating to 
£1,004, up £6 on the day and £1 
on the week. 

The London cocoa market 
was “trading an the back of 
fear” one trader told Reuters. 
“It's fear and technicals push- 
ing it” 

At the London Metal 
Exchange most base metals 
contracts on Thursday 
repaired at least some of the 
damage done earlier in the 
week as copper led a general 
retreat. 

The three months delivery 
copper price ended at $2,479.75 
a tonne, up $9JS an the day 
but still $59 down on the week. 
Traders attributed the rally to 
short-covering and book-squar- 
ing and viewed the action as a 
correction within a longer-term 
downtrend. “Everyone got 
themselves a little short in 
most of these markets and 
wants to cover," said one. 

The strongest LME market 
cm balance was lead. Continu- 
ing concern about nearby sup- 
ply tightness restricted its 
early decline and encouraged 
the subsequent recovery. By 
Thursday’s close the three 
months delivery price was at 
$800.50 a tonne, up $16 on the 
day and $11 on the week. 

Richard Mooney 


BASE METALS : . 

LONDON METAL EXCHANGE 

(ftfces from Amalgamated Mm Trading 


Precious Metals continued 

n GOLP.COMEX POO oz.; S/tray ozj 


sm d « r* 


op a 


GRAINS AND OIL SEEDS 

■ WHEAT LC6(£ per tome) 

Sslt Day* 0 


SOFTS 

■ COCOA LCE gytomn) 


sm dw* 



Caait 

Z mtba 

Close 

IRK 

JS37-8 

Previous 

1601-2 

1834-5 

Httfiflow 


1845/1830 

AM OfflcU 

laosjtao 

16365-74 

Kerb dosa 


1629.5-305 

Opan InL 

N/A 


Total dafly turnover 

N/A 


■ ALUMINIUM ALLOY (S per tonna) 

Clou 

1365-75 

1405-10 

Previoua 

1360-70 

1400-6 

High/low 


1410/1405 

AM Official 

1386-75 

1400-10 

Kerb dose 


1400-10 

Opan taL 

N/A 


Total daily turnover 

N/A 


■ LEAD ($ partonn^ 


Ckoe 

825-7 

800-1 

Pnwicxre 

7»«1 

7B&-6 

tflgti/tow 

B2Smi7 

800/782 

AM Offlcta 

818-0 

795555 

kwj ck»o 


797-05 

Open bit 

N/A 


Total dafly turnover 

N/A 


■ WCKEL (S per tonne) 


doae 

8040-50 

-8130-35 

Previous. 

7975-85 

8065-70 

hfigMow 


BVUV8100 

AM Offldal 

8015^0 

8100-10 

Kerb dose 


6110-5 

Onm taL . 

N/A 


Total dafly turnover 

N/A 


■ TOCS par tonns) 



Close 

8395-408 

8430-40 

Previous 

6350-60 

638540 

rtgh/tov* 

6390 

B46Q/B420 

AM Cfffidal 

6385-90 

6420-30 

Kteb dose - • 


8420-30 

Open tat 

N/A 


Total dafly turnover 

N/A 


■ ZMC, spedal high grade (S par tonne) 

Close 

1058D-7D 

1080-1 

Previous 

1043-4 

10685-7.0 

Hgri/kw 

1053/10525 

1060/1073 

AMCHSdd 

1052-25 

1076-65 

Kerb doee 


1077-6 

Open taL 

N/A 


Tata! dafly turnover 

N/A 


■ COPPER, ^ade A {6 per tonne) 


Ctaaa 

248340 

24795-80.0 

Previous 

2478D-805 

2470-1 

Hghriow 


2482/2470 

AM Official 

2488-8 

24765-75 

Kara dose 


2475-55 

Open tat 

N/A 


Total dafly turnover 

N/A 


■ LME AM OfflcM £/* rate 1D2S7 

LIE Closing VS rate N7A 



On 
Dm 
F ed- 
Total 

■ P1XTMJM NYMEX {50 Tmy ati Srtroy at) 

Apr 408.0 -14 4105 4000 298 570 

M 409J 442 4105 406.1 1,680 19*16 

W 4128 +62 4115 4110 223 1140 

Ju 4116 402 .. - 5 1.067 

Apr 418.1 402 - - , B 655 

Total 2^23 24 JM 

■ PALLADIUM NYMEfpOO T.oy qz_: S/troy caj 

Jm 141.25 -075 14200 14060 264 1853 

Sq» 142.65 -075 14290 14290 87 821 

On 14168 -078 MATS 144.75 1 111 

Tool 332 *7» 

■ SILVER COMEX (5.000 Troy QZU Conts/lray ccj 


■ WHEAT CST &OOCQmrt n; certe/BOfa b usheQ 

HW 


UK 


Jd 

Total 


52250 
487 J» 
48150 

501.00 

497.00 

4BL DQ 


-OS 52900 51800 6.483 19574 

-Ora 48200 48125 19.163 52595 

4025 43200 48150 2558 11234 

+2 50200 49400 1 588 9324 

-1 50000 46200 128 G57 

415 <3200 42500 160 631 

30,721 BB/OB 


■ HAB E CB T ROOO bu m in: canta/Mb budieQ 

m 


Apr 

542.0 

-85 


5258 

1 1 

•ter 

5435 

-87 

5955 

541D 215» 55531 

M 

548.4 

-87 

sao 

5485 

8418 18272 

Sap 

S53D 

-87 


5518 

3,780 11.427 

Itac 

560.1 

+87 

5730 

5580 

102 7.888 

Ite 

567.4 

-85 

574.0 

57*0 

9 3.165 

Total 





31AZ5 99,734 


DM 


DU 


42850 

41825 

333J5 

33825 

33900 


4225 42825 42000 51520 156530 
+175 41750 40850 34504 1445T7 
+6.75 36875 35425 6529 45.143 
+5 33500 32750 17,775101722 
4429 33875 33200 959 B53B 

+30 34100 33525 BB 908 

114579491328 


■ BARLEY LC6 (E par tome) 


ENERGY 

m CRUDE OIL NYMSC (42.000 US gella. efttaWj 


SM Day's 
P*» <**0® "fa 

my 2275 40.48 2250 

■te 2050 4050 2055 

JU 1952 +0.17 1953 

Am 1818 40.10 1817 

Sop 1853 4050 187B 

Oct 1808 4009 1801 

Total 

m CRUDE OIL FPE (S/barrot) 


Low M tat 

22.12 49523 96,063 
2848 28435 82504 
1907 10520 50537 
1950 1536 32508 
1870 3501 28590 
1851 1.446 11289 
1815Z745R561 


Majf 

11240 

-810 

113-00 

111.75 

9 

430 

Stp 

10815 

+865 

107.75 

107.75 

- 

44 

Hdv 

10946 

+845 

11825 

11800 

18 

527 

Jki 

11180 

+840 

_ 

_ 

- 

103 

■ar 

114.00 

+850 

114.15 

11415 

6 

41 

Total 





33 

1,146 

■ SOYABEANS COT (5/DOMi nfln; canbfeOb buttoQ 

*a*r 

7SL50 

+875 

78875 

75800 

17.154 

5851 r 

tti 

774-25 

+875 

78800 

76800 37J63 68908 

Mg 

77825 

+025 

78050 

76800 

1854 

9059 

Sap 

76460 

+25 

77000 

76050 

268 

4361 

Baa 

761 JX) 

+25 76650 7S50 

14506 

60.B94 

Jm 

76800 

+2 

77150 

76200 

703 

3JD7 



son 

D aft 



Opan 

Dm 

2878 


prim 

manga 

Hah 

Low 

Yol lot 



Nay 


+827 

2828 

1953 

11519 01,788 

■ SOYABEAN 1 

J9n 

1895 

+813 

IBlOO 

1868 

7593 56.155 



M 

1813 

+806 

1818 

1756 

3202 45.738 




1752 

+803 

17.66 

1751 

1253 18216 



Sap 

1738 

+802 

1742 

1729 

407 12472 

S8p 

2442 

Qd 

17.18 

+002 

1723 

T7D9 

190 5,134 



Total 





ttfiuzauso 

Dae 

242.1 


M 7^450204590 

SOYABEAN OB- COT (6QJQQ««: carta/to) 

2862 -0.14 2883 2856 8446 31562 

2858 -0.15 2821 2893 7538 38524 

2814 -817 2838 2813 589 7547 

2831 -817 2655 2831 105 3588 

2870 2842 877 2579 


fm 

Sta> 


17,118 04,162 


■ HEATING 08. MWB( (42J00 US gdfc; C/U5 Qdaj 
sea Baft Open 


+25 244.4 2389 7570 33595 

+2.5 2482 2418 11585 34532 

+25 2485 2435 1.132 8721 

+11 2483 2425 324 4.467 

+25 2435 2388 26S 2531 

+25 2*17 2388 1588 11144 

Total 22577 96554 

■ POTATOES LCE CE/tonnel 


swt 15299 3 MdK 15279 6 mtta: 15254 9 uflK 15231 
■ HIGH GRADE COPPER (COMEX) 


prim 

dream 

Hgh 

lita 1M 

tat 

May 

175.0 

+52 1672 1652 

1 129 

5927 

+125 

5880 

5800 10289 25215 

Jw 

225.0 

- - - 

- 

5441 

+859 

5425 

5325 5244 18795 

Ikn 

1052 

- - - 

- 

52.71 

+829 

US 

5220 1208 12234 

Mar 

mo 

- - - 

- 

5236 

+809 

5200 

5220 .1231 

9,190 

** 

1152 

+80 - - 

- 157 

SJI 

+804 

5890 

5220 1201 

4J84 

Total 



144 S41 



Sara 

Daft 


Open 


prim 

ctange Mgb Lore 

ltd 

tt 

Apr 

11320 

+845 11350 11320 

382 

2274 

Nay 

11325 

+870 11325 11225 

5.127 19363 

Joe 

11225 

+880 11220 11220 

94 

K7 

JW 

11225 

+020 112.45 11120 

1241 

6.473 

A«I 

11125 

+850 11325 11335 

15 

532 

Sap 

111.05 

+030 11130 11120 

257 

3,473 

DM 



7330 42335 

PRECIOUS METALS 



■ LONDON BULLION MARKET 
(Priowsmpfed by N M FfothadifcO 




*•9 

Oct 5121 +054 53.45 53.10 SO 1179 
Total 23504 94,168 

■ GASOIL H{WUB00| 


■ FREIGHT (BFFBQ LCE (SUVIndox point) 


Apr 

R«t 


Total 


8M 

Prion 

19150 

17750 

1687S 

16175 

T81-75 

76150 


Daft 

change Ugh Low 

- 19450 19050 
+1.00 177.25 17850 
+875 16875 16750 
+825 18450 16350 
+825 161.50 16875 
+850 781.00 16150 


*d tat 
4571 8507 

3553 14.152 
1,322 18489 
424 5,786 
214 5257 
20 1535 
10573 55,187 


AM 

1488 

+12 

1468 

1485 

11 

999 

Nay 

1408 

+16 

1412 

1405 

23 

717 

Jri 

1304 

+0 

1385 

1300 

54 

1249 

Oct 

13S0 

+17 

1350 

1340 

ID 

740 

Jm 

1375 

+10 

- 

- 

- 

56 

Apr 

1388 

♦13 

- 

- 

- 

32 

Totri 

Ctom 

PlH 



1B3 

sow 

HR 

1468 

1454 






■ NATURAL GAS NTMEX [10500 nunBtm S/nraf&U 


Gold (Tray oz) S price £ eqdv SFr «quSv 
C taoo 39325-333.75 

29425-394.75 

39450 258354 47T5I77 

39175 257559 470546 

394.40-39450 
39350-39150 
Previous close 39460-39550 
Loco Uta Mem Odd Leafing Rales {Vb US® 

1 month 365 6 month s 362 

2 months 167 12 month* — 365 


SM Day's 

price chmga Hfa Low 

2335 +8631 


Opening 
Morning fix 
Afternoon fix 
Day's High 
Day's Low 


Jm 2289 +5556 

JU 2253 +8043 

Am 2210 +0634 

Sep 2165 +8531 

Oct 2190 +8633 

Total 

« UNLEADED GASOLINE 
MVMB(CJOOOUSgilfc;cWSg«taJ 


2380 2300 
2295 22*5 
2280 2220 
2210 2165 
21(5 2140 
2150 2120 


0pm 
VU tat 

12325 31473 
2900 20353 
2388 19£1B 
67B 15299 
838 12772 
489 10349 
23/03186615 


FUTURES DATA 

AB futures data suppBad by CMS. 


Per mw urtara <nnmta dated. p PenceAg. c O wn ta.> My- 


3 months ._ 
Dhtr Rk 

3 month* *. 

qjjwottp. 

1 yaw . 
Gold Calm 
Krugenand 


366 


N«w Sovereign 


pftroyac. ' 
38160 
... 36860 

— . , 37060 

380.70 ' 

S price 
393086 
404.60-407.10 
92-95 


US cl* squill. 
52.50 
- S58 L 3S • 
55460 - 
577 JO 
teqnta. 
258-259 

eora 



SHI 

u*y*« 



Opm 


prica 

rhHU/J 

a# 

Lore 

Voi tat 

Hay 

6876 

+L07 

6920 

6730 15233 29273 

Jm 

56.14 

+8K 

SMS 

6S35 

8.™ 16,100 

M 

<n>a 

+837 

63-70 

63.00 

3200 11222 

Aug 

6039 

♦817 

5020 

60.00 

TJET 5206 

Sm 

5724 

+807 

5800 

57.75 

1.125 3303 

Oct 

Tdri 

5849 

+816 

5420 

54-80 

122 721 

30234 *7249 


Nuts and Seeds 

Prices from Kanfcko Group; USS a tome, ba- 
nian pistachios 28/30 raw (ki shell nat uraiy 
opened (romdj; 1S95 crop 3/400 CFWFUT 
MB’. 26/28 3,500 CfR/FOT Mff 1 - rousted 
and aaltad 28/30 u 3600 ex-Hombug. vac- 
tun pack. US aknonda (shafted) 23/25 NPSSR 
1995 crop at 8.100; atabta. new crop lewis 
aadmatsd at 4600 to 5/300. US walnuts LHP 
2099 - 5600 FAS Cafomta. tndtan cashews 
raw; 1995 crop. W-320. 6650 spot Europe 
toaw crop oflms at 5650); W-240 6500 spot 
Europe (new crap offers at 8100). Turkish 
hazelnut kameta. 13715 standard 18, 1905 crap, 
up sharply to over 3600 FOB MEP, Stfl no 
otters. PunpJun seeds; Russian snow white 
1995 crop. long, grape A, at 1650 FCA 
Evope, down with Inraeased euppfiee; round 
typo 225a 


■ COCOA CSC£ (10 tonnes Vtonnea) 

May 
Jd 
Sep 
Dec 


Total 

■ COCOA ftCCO) (SDR 1 flflnnrw) 


Kit 
DMf - 


Price 

.97461 


Pm. itay 
97883 


LCE (3/tonno) 


Hay 

1B77 

+27 

1884 

1866 1203 15447 

Jd 

1847 

+28 

1650 

1832 

646 

7,133 

Sep 

1542 

+26 

1842 

1825 

197 

3275 

Baa 

1833 

+26 

1830 

1825 

B7 

5423 

Jam 

1814 

+22 

1B14 

1805 

41 

1,221 

Mre 

1786 

+20 

_ 

_ 

_ 

5*1 

Total 





2.1B4 2B.77B 

■ COFFEE -C CSCE (37300 fts oems/tos) 


nay 

11535 

-0.10 

11730 

11580 

5727 

18167 

jre 

115.10 

+025 

11550 

11345 

1A71 

5146 

Sap 

1M.7D 

+820 

11810 

11320 

561 

4248 

Oac 

11420 

+9.40 

11520 

11220 

31 

2237 

Har 

11420 

- 

114.75 

11320 


503 

Hay 

11525 

+030 

11S20 

11500 

* 

138 

Itatai 





6JKB 31341 

■ COFFEE (ice? (US cents/jjomd) 



tars 



Prica 


Pr#«. flay 





104.11 

10898 

15 rtay at crape . — 


- 10893 


■ WHITE SUGAR LCE (t/torme) 



May 

4159 

+81 

4150 

4092 

1AS7 

8248 

tag 

3957 

+89 

3355 

3822 

1,753 

9555 

Oct 

3467 

+5-5 

347.0 

3481 

1.103 

4204 

Dae 

3387 

+12 

332.1 

3285 

223 

2583 

Har 

319.9 

-02 

■Krt o 

3195 

86 

1589 

Hay 

3162 

-23 

3174 

3172 

6 

933 


Total 4JB2B 2B.U2 

■ SUGAR if CSCE {112000lbs; cents/fee) 


tey 

1129 

+0.12 

11.98 

11.7013.059 43214 

JU 

1126 

+0.07 

11.09 

1895 

5590 43274 

Oct 

roJ< 

+028 

ro.77 

1863 

1576 29273 

Mar 

10.44 

+807 

10-47 

1835 1.431 

18275 

Hay 

1058 

+81 

1058 

'1050 

99 

4282 

Jd 

1027 

+815 

10.28 

1815 

36 

25« 

Total 




21,436143587 

■ COTTON NYCE (50.000bs: cattsAbai 


ter 

8755 

+1.75 

68-40 

8810 8598 18548 

Jd 

8623 

+127 

8929 

8755 4577 13.938 

Oct 

8507 

+062 

8420 

82.60 

231 

2,714 

Dac 

80.43 

+0.48 

8845 

8020 

1.405 

18707 

nr 

8125 

+655 

8125 

60-80 

72 

2540 

ite 

81.75 

+056 

81.40 

8155 

IB 

1202 

Total 




T2J803 58«4 

■ ORANGE JUICE NYCE (15.000838: centsAbsl 

■W 

12885 

+125 

13810 

12720 

863 

13509 

Jd 

12855 

+1.35 

12870 

12720 

524 

4.668 

Sep 

127.45 

+155 

12720 

12650 

87 

2.631 

tan 

12830 

+1.35 

12450 

12350 

11 

793 

Jm 

12155 

+850 

12125 

12150 

102 

2249 

tor 

12595 

+050 

- 

- 

1 

176 

ratal 





1590 2*501 


VOLUME DATA 

Open Interest and Volume data shown for 
contracts traded on COMEX NYMEX COT, 
MYCE. CME aid CSCE are one day ki arrears. 


INDICES 

41 REUTERS (Bawc 18/8/31=100) 


Apr4 

2108.7 


Apr 3 

21003 


month ago 
21201 


yaarago 

23076 


CRB Futures (Base: 1967=100) 


Apr 3 Apr 2 month ago year ego 
253.41 25268 24361 23662 

GSa Spot (Bass; 1970=100) 


MEAT AND LIVESTOCK 

■ LIVE CATTLE CME WaOOOta: ccntoAbS) 


SM Dsya 


(Bte 1 

cfcrega 

Hgh 

tare 

Vd W 


prim 

cflaoge Ugh Lore 

M 

tat 


prim d 

i am 

High 

Lore Vd tt 


395.1 

+02 

8880 

3935 

1-445 1542 

Nay 

12426 

-035 12550 124.75 

123 

2284 

day 

885 

+7 

1018 

985 2567 15260 

Apr 

3972 

+02 

387.8 

395,7 32580100262 

Jd 

127.70 

-055 12850 12720 

75 

951 

Jd 

1005 

+7 

1038 

1004 3.750 21998 

Jm 

am 

+02 

3987 

3880 

275 20/75 

Sflp 

11K0 

+025 

- 

268 

Sap 

10Z9 

+11 

10S7 

1022 4205 41231 

AM 

<025 

+02 

4012 

4015 

15 5542 

far 

IliH 

+020 115.75 115D0 

IBS 

1.715 

Dae 

997 

+10 

1014 

996 1232 19294 

Oct 

4017 

+02 

4042 

4032 

SJ78 22584 

Jan 

117.10 

+025 11750 11720 

38 

468 

Uttar 

1002 

+11 

1017 

1001 2202 39292 

Dac 

4075 

+02 

4062 

406.4 

24 5JI27 

Har 

iiaoa 

+055 11*15 11900 

11 

48 

Hay 

1D13 

+11 

1026 

1012 624 13258 

Fab 





<1268197579 

Total 



468 

4B4 

TBtre 




isjanssjH* 

Told 


63.775 +8025 64200 81300 
83.475 +1375 63.730 62.750 
6&J300 +8350 0650 62.750 
64200 +8173 54.525 81900 

61175 -ana ei4M 63J» 

HMl -8100 61850 61200 


0p* 
1M M 
6649 18633 
1241 33,448 
2.43S 18713 
678 18813 
358 9258 
177 4JZ3B 
11957 97660 


1341 

-3 

1362 

1317 1476 20,424 

Apr 

1354 

-3 

lira 

1330 62SB 21,279 

Jm 

1366 

-7 

1390 

1»0 1.105 11786 

Jd 

1383 

-10 

1403 

1370 015 11511 

ABO 

1396 

-10 

1416 

1385 1.189 10281 

Od 

1414 

-18 

1432 

1412 12S 4267 

DK 




1R054 85288 

Total 


52575 +8825 51775 5139) 
56.900 +8660 57.150 55B50 
55225 +8475 55478 54690 
51.975 - 51300 51600 

41350 +8225 41500 <7650 
49500 +0375 49.500 4&000 


1843 6,451 
4564 14638 
1667 8235 
048 5625 
687 3690 
480 2.425 

tl6B «62Z 

■ PORK BRI PS CME (400001a: cantsAM 
Hay 74400 +8025 74675 71125 365« 6266 
61 73575 +8325 73775 71100 1.100 3.437 

tag 70575 +8375 70575 GO250 605 1.160 

Ml 67550 -0525 68.750 61100 167 257 

Har 68300 +0 300 68300 61300 < 4 

TOM Sjm 11,125 


LONDON TRADED OPTIONS 

Strike price 9 tonne — - Cads — *— Pida — 

■ AUIMMHIM 
(99.7%) LME 


■ COPPER 
(Grade A) LME 


■ COFFEE LCE 

1850 

1900- 

1060 

■ COCOA LCE 

875 

800 

925 

■ BRENT CRUDE V>E 


May 

Sep 

May 

Sep 

- 

■ 

: 

- 

May 

Sep 

May 

Sep 

May 

JU 

May 

Jul 

87 

130 

40 

133 

30 

lit 

65 

184 

26 

93 

99 

196 

May 

Jd 

May 

Jul 

110 

138 

. 

19 

85 

118 

_ 

27 

62 

89 

2 

36 

May 

Jm 

May 

Jun 

- 

- 

- 

55 

_ 

56 

4 

80 

54 

38 

17 

- 


1850 ....... 

1900 

1950 

LONDON SPOT MARKETS 

■ CRUDE OIL FOB (per barrel) 


+or- 


Dubai S17.S4-7.74x +0.045 

Brmt Blend (dated) S20.84-886 -808 

Brent Blend (May) S20.14-0.16 +007 

W.T.I. S22.60-2.63x +025 

■ OIL PRODUCTS NWE prompt defawy CtF (tome) 


Rrwnium Gasaikw 

Gae OA 

Heavy Fuel Ol 

Naphtha 

Jet fuel 

Diesel 


$212-213 
Si 94-196- 
S107-109 
$195-197 
S214-216 
$201-203* 


Apr3 

21883 


Apr 2 mofifli ago year ago 
211.21 195.15 179.15 


Amtain Arpua. Tot London (01711 359 a 792 
■ OTHER 

Gold (per boy oz)* $383.50 -1.55 

SBvar (per troy oz)* 546.30c -11.0 

Ptaltaun (per troy oz.) $408.75 +1B 

Paiedun (per boy az.) Si 40.00 <84 

Capper 123.0c 

Lead (US prod.) 45.00c 

Tm (Kuala Urnpuri I5.89r +0.02 

Tin (New York) 300.5 +1.0 

Cattle (Eve unigHft 111.220 +1860* 

Sheep (Bve wetflhOT^ 1B3B0p +3186* 

Plge five weigMTt 113.12p -24.52* 

Lon. day eugar (raw) S3085 +80 

Lon. day sugar (wte) $415.0 +80 

Barley (Bug. feed) Unq 

Maize (US No3 YeSow) 1485 

Wheal (US Doric North] Unq. 

Rubber (Mey)V 9780p -ID 

Rubber (Jun)V 97D0p -ID 

Rubber (KLRSS Not) 37800m -5D 

Coconut Oi (PWȤ $737 Dv 

Pafcn Oa (Malay J§ S547D +5 

Copra (PhlQ§ 470Dv 

Soyabcama (US) 217 j0v 

Cotton OuUoofc’A’ indes 8825c +035 

Woottops (64a Super) 444p 

C par turns untan oOtaMso Mdod. p pencaAig. c cmtrtj. 
r nnqM/hp. m Mstaystan Eartafl ig . x May. » AptfMay. y Aft/ 
Junta London RiymL 6 CF R jm » U«u+ f Bitaon nariat 
dose. * Snap (Uvn aWgM pheed- * Change on **k 
TPricae ora tor prerfous wMh. Xtanicud Gas Ofl kx 1/4/96 
186-189 -tVL DtawM on 3M/9S was 1(0-195 -3 


}){f ft<: Jl.iintT" 


ri 




. f .-» •- 1 J:!1 






y. 


WORLD BOND PRICES 


MARKET REPORT 

By Samar bkandar 


US Treasuries reacted violently 
to the release of employment 
data yesterday, after a quiet 
week, while European markets 
were closed far the long Easter 
weekend. 

The CBOT’s June T-Bond 
future fell 2 1 * points to end the 
truncated trading session at 
I09i|. 

Futures contracts on three- 
month interest rates reflected 
anticipations of a 0-25 to 0.5 per 
cent rise in the third quarter of 
1997. 

In the cash market, the 30- 
year bond fell by IS to 89S, its 
yield rising to 6.84 per cent, 

/from 6.66 per cent at the previ- 
ous dose. 

“The market had dosed on a 
negative note Thursday, 
already pricing in a bearish fig- 
ure," said Mr Richard Gilhooly, 

US Treasury strategist at Pari- 
bas Capital Markets in New 
York. ^ , 

A revision to the number of 
job creations in February to 
624,000, from 705,000 initially 
announced, was deemed insuf- 
ficient by market participants. 

Furthermore, the US Labor 
Department announced 140.000 

BENCHMARK GOVERNMENT BONDS 

Rad W 

Coupon Pa» ***» chatl 9g 


Don-farm job creations in 
March, as vfell as a 0.3 per cent 
increase in average earnings. 

Mr Gilhooly underlined the 
fact that most recent job cre- 
ations had taken place in the 
services sector. 

He expects manufacturing 
employment to pick-up in 
the second quarter of this 
year, with most inventory 
adjustments nearing comple- 
tion. This could create upward 
pressure on wages and revive 
inflationary fears among 
traders. 

Although yesterday's reac- 
tion might have been exagger- 
ated by the thinness of trading 
due to the long weekend, the 
chances of a correction in the 
next few days are slim, with 
auctions of 2-year and 5-year 
notes scheduled for Monday 
and Tuesday respectively. 
"Traders are likely to try and 
drive the 2-year yield up to 
around 6.15 per cent before the 
auction" from 6.08 per cent yes- 
terday, said Paribas’ Mr Gil- 
hooly. 

“The market expects the 
next monetary policy move to 
be a tightening." he added, 
suggesting that sentiment 

might have turned durably. 


Week Month 
Yield ago ago 


Australia 

Austria 

Batgnini 

Grata* 

Danmark 

France 


BTAN 


10.000 02/06 107 .9530 

6.125 02/06 87.6800 

7.000 05/06 1O2.1B00 

8.750 12/05 107,6000 

8000 03/DB 103. 8400 


Germany Bund 

kefimd 

Italy 

Japan No 129 
HO 532 

Netherisids ‘ 

Portugal 

Sputa 

Sweden 

UKGfiB 


US Treasury* 

ECU (French GovD 

Londite rtwg tataw YoAdtetag 


9.500 


‘ 8000 01/08 
11.B75 OOOS 
18150 ' 01/06 
8000 02/05 

8.000 12/00 
7500 12/D6 

9.000 10®B 

5D25 02/06 

8000 02/28 


102-06 

Bfl-01 


91-13 


*0.088 

a?g 

899 

8.72 

-0.120 

845 

854 

863 

-0.120 

889 

6D2 

6.90 

-0350 

7DB 

7.68 

747 


7 .44 

728 

7.71 

-0.070 

872 

5.78 

877 

-0.190 

858 

861 

874 

-0.160 

839 

848 

'842 

♦0.420 

7J92 

808 

7D8 

+0.450 1D.37T 

10.63 

1045 

+0D32 

122 

1D8 

2.13 

+OT&1 

3.12 

819 

3-21 

-a 050 

6-37 

BM 

84) 

+0.140 

829 

920 

9-56 

♦0.180 

944 

0.68 

8.71 

+0D15 

845 

8*7 

887 

-1/32 

7.43 

7D6 

7D1 

+2/32 

BD6 

822 

7D8 

+2/32 

818 

034 

807 

-1802 

834 

834 

806 

■15/32 

6.68 

6D9 

846 

-0280 

7D4 

7.14 

7D3 


n ft+7- i<S to r - Wf ornqrt TMBEB t^ 

nitam Cyrirrt e^curreiefej with 

JBmteeemtotxchaMaefieert 
James Maxwell 

jMrOt 71 702 Iff I 

ttocrVin 


TWtaE LBCta norw MldBHL 




.,110-?. ci"fl 


?3Vlarket-Eye ||,\ 

FFtECPHOHL 0800 321 321 FAX 0171 398 1001 


US INTEREST RATES 


■ LONG GB-T FUTWtES OPTIONS (UFFD E58000 64ths Of 100K 


Doae 


BnMr lore nds . 
FatLfereria . 


FMjMdi m tawvtmteL. . 


Oaemortb „ 
8Vi TWo msh _ 
7 ItatMdi. 

5 & Sb nxO 

- Oteyre — 


Treasuy Blta ud Bond YMds 

- . - ftnyaw. 


- Tta»j«ar_ 
515 RnyBv- 
135 ULyoar 
165 30-jai 


108 

821 

135 

157 

BJM 


Strftas 

Price 

May 

Jm 

GALLS — 
Jul 

Sep 

May 

Jm 

pure 

JU 

Sep 

105 

1-1 a 

1-45 

1-21 

1-S5 

0-28 

D-55 

1-37 

2-07 

106 

0-44 

1-07 

0-58 

1-27 

0-54 

1-17 

2-10 

2-43 

107 

o-ia 

0-43 

0-38 

1-04 

1-28 

1-53 

2-54 

3-20 


BOND FUTURES AND OPTIONS 


Franee.. 

■ NOTIONAL FRENCH BOND FUTURES (MATTF) FFrSOOjOOO 


Ess. no L toad. Cate 1D51 nos 452. Pmwtaus dqrk open It. Cate 44106 Purs 36547 


Ecu 

■ ECU BOND WJIUREB (MAUR ECU100DOO 


US 

■ LB TREASURY BOND FUTURES (CBT) 5100000 32nds 1QQ% 

Open Seri price Change High Low EsL voL Open InL 
JUn 111-20 109-13 -2-07 112-05 1H-17 1S2D5B 345.8S7 

Sep 111-04 103-29 -2-07 111-18 111-02 3D12 20 567 

Dec 110-19 1DB-13 -2-06 110-25 110-18 52 3.S54 


Japan 

■ NOTIONAL LONG TERM JAPANESE GOVT. BOND FUTURES 
(WHS) YTOOtn lOOtfw of 100% 



. Open 

Sett price 

Change 

High 

Low 

EsL voL 

Open taL 


Open 

Sett price 

Change 

High 

Low 

EsL vo L 

Open InL 

Jun 

121.92 

121.84 

-028 

121.94 

12162 

6,600 

137663 

Jm 

9026 

9008 

-022 

9026 

90.04 

1229 

7.718 

Sep 

120.88 

120.56 

-0.28 

120.68 

12058 

471 

4680 

Sep 

- 

8900 

- 

- 

- 

- 

- 

Doc 

11942 

11930 

-028 

11942 

119.40 

37 

684 










■ LONG TERM FRENCH BOND OPTIONS (MATH) 


1D9 

2.43 


Strto 
Price 

TIB 

ISO 

131 

132 

133 

'Em. voL tmL Ctas ia,M8 Putt 2D.*rr . Ptewtxra oen open ml. Cate i«.tia Putt 1G8M7. 


Germany 


May 

- GALLS - 
Jm 

Sep 

May 

— PUTS 
Jun 


. 

. 

QD8 

028 

2.03 

- 

- 

0.16 

048 

1.15 


148 

031 

0.72 

062 

067 

- 

0.67 

1.12 

818 

063 

- 

- 

- 



Open 

Sea price Change 

hBgh 

Low 

Eat- vd 

Open InL 


9873 

96.05 -0.07 

96.77 

9850 

57527 

220438 

Sep 

9876 

9879 -0-07 

9565 

95.78 

250- 

5297 

H BUND FUTWBS OPTIONS OLIFFE) DM250.000 pdnts ol 1009& 





■■■■—■ 

'■■■ 

CALLS 




PUTS 


Price 

May 

Jun 

Jul 

Sep 

May 

Jun 

Jul 

Sep 

9850 

062 

065 

0.74 

1-06 

047 

0-80 

145 

1.77 

9700 

027 

089 

0.54 

065 

0.72 

1.04 

1.7S 

2D6 

0730 

020 

048 

0-38 

0.S7 

IDS 

123 

2-10 

2-38 

Ebl voi. tottL Cttto 13490 Putt 9S5B. PteVkM 

(taYa open tt. Oritt 

737290 Pub 191003 



Italy 

n NOTIONAL ITALIAN GOVT. BOND (OTP) FUTURES 
flj=FEr L n 200m lOOfta e< 100% 


Open Sen price Change High Low EsL w» Open taL 

109.18 I09.es' +854 100.73 109.00 27382 43284 

108.14 +854 - - 0 258 


Jun 

Sap 


■ ITALIAN GOVT. BOND PTP) HITURES CS y TIOWS UbgOttal IQOtha 0( TOOK 


Strike 


■ CALLS 


- PUTS 

Price 

Jm 

Sep 

Jm 

Sap 

10980 

IDO 

264 

141 

2.70 

11000 

1-34 

2.11 

165 

2-97 

11050 . 

1.14 

1.90 

165 

326 


Pm. tottL CMs 2797 Pott C355. Rtedous daft seen **, (tab 69590 Puts 73179 


Spain 

R- NOTIONAL SPANISH BOND FUTURES (M£FF] 


Jm 


UK 


Open Sett pm Change 
9820 9888 +854 


Hgh 

9894 


Low 

9895 


EsL voL Open mt 
80.461 47,590 


m NOTttNAt. WC Qtt-T IUTURES ftJFFET £50JX)0 100% 

Open Sea price Change Hgh Ur* EsL vd Open Ira. 
Jm 105-17 105-27 +0-0B 105-30 105-15 19179 120284 

Sap - 104-24 +0-09 - - 0 IBS 


FT-ACTU ARIES FIXED INTEREST INDICES 

Tin Day's Wed Accrued 

UK GBta Prica kuSoae Apr 4 ctange % Apr 3 li 


xd aefl 
JM 


Open Cfosa Change Hgh Low Est. vo l Open nL 
Jun 119DB - - 119.65 11BJ55 953 0 

* UFFE tuum re traOod on APT. Al Opan WnmcJ figs, are for mnu day. 


tadncJMced 


1 Up to 5 yseisQa) 

2 5-15 yews (19) 

3 Over 15 ; ~ 

4 Sredr 

5 Al stocks 


12189 

14801 

159.H 

18822 

14127 


+0.11 

12146 

229 

2.43 

6 

+023 

145.67 

3.13 

260 

7 

+OJ38 

15910 

2-48 

346 

a 

+022 

18243 

3.74 

147 


+022 

14066 

2.74 

262 



Dai 

Apr < 

Day^t 
chretge W 

Wed 

Apr 3 

Accrued 

interest 

xd adj 
yrd 

1B767 

+0.06 

19765 

4-00 

0.00 

185.61 

+0.04 

185.54 

1.09 

1.19 

185.75 

+0-04 

165.69 

1.16 

1.16 


Yields 


■ ■ ■■ r— Lqvf ffQaiyyYffi vIhM m 

Apr 4 Apr 3 Yr ago Hgh 


Low 


Apr 4 Apr 3 Yr ago 


ivtaH 

High 


Low 


Apr 4 Apr 


gr 


?5^ 

20 yre 
Irred-t 

Indax-fMttd 


762 

7.53 

821 

7.87 (28/3) 

8.66 (18/1 

758 

756 

a. 38 

7.71 (28/3) 

6.68 nan) 

7.65 

7.86 

851 

720 G6/3I 

6.77 (18/11 

821 

aw 

825 

828 amt 

750 ft 8/1 

822 

825 

843 

940 (28/3) 

754 

jianj 

931 - 

fl 9S 

964 

8.49 (28/3) 

7.S5 (iam 

829 

824 

821 

826 

823 

838 

8,44 (12/3) 
848 (12/3) 

7.03 (ian 
7.75 P5/1 

827 

820 

843 

B.45 (28/3) 

7.65 

(18/1) 

825 

8-38 

8.59 

8.52 {29/31 

7 72 116/1) 


Inflarlon rate ! 


InWadon rats 10% 


837 4.17 (1071) 236 (24/lj 


3.81 3.95 (arai 3.48 (6712 


1.69 

3D5 


Up to 5 yre 2.99 237 

over 5 yre 874 3.74 

Average gross ladaro p bon yields are shown above. Coupon Banda Low: 0% 
Base values: UK Gats Indus 31/12775 - 100.00 and Indax-Unked 30/4/82 = 


1.B4 

334 


138 2.96 (10/1) 0.78 (14/fl) 
333 877 (9/3) 338 (8/12) 


■7\%: Medium: 8%-ifA%: High: 11% and aver, t Fiat yield ytd Year to date. 
100 DO. ■ 1996 highs and lows. 


GILT EDGED ACTIVITY INDICES 

Apr 3 Apr 2 Apr 1 


Mar 29 Mar 28 


FT FIXED INTEREST INDICES 

Apr 4 Apr 3 Apr 2 Apr 1 Mar 29 Yr ego Hleri* Low 

Govt. Secs. (UK) 09 so 92.40 0237 9239 92.15 92.06 9834 8137 G» Edged bargains 94.3 90.8 81.5 1083 115.7 

Fixed inmost 111D9 111D4 111D8 m.43 110.83 111.12 11823 11874 6-day luonage 98 T 101.9 1Q2.6 107.4 107.7 

' tar 1906. QoremeM Snittn Mgh ten 1274 flWm/35), low 43.16 (D3/01/7EI. Rted Wa res! httti ten c wu p aak ni: 133.07 piroire+i. tow SOS3 (03/01/7^. Oeota 10ft Gcwamrrmn Sacutam 

15/1ivze and Rxsd Inurea 1928. 8E oatvfey todon rebaaed 1974 


UK GILTS PRICES 


— ViH_ _TBB5_ 

M Had Rleat+w- Npi Lite 


BN- -1998- 

Bad PriceC+ar- Los 


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fl_ 1396 _ 

(2)Mw£ +w- Wflh Low 


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TN»7ltfCl9S&ti 

Ttas6Vl*:i995-«tt- 

Tnre lStjpc 

Bah 12pc 1933 — 

Tnugfesimtt — 

Tibs R® IB* 1999 

Bodi iJliX 1999 

TfBM ifftec 1969 


Cow 9pc 2000tt . 
Tnat13pc2900.. 


Tibb 14PC 1996-1 1321 

Tree 8pe 2000# — 

Trcas IQpcTDOl — 


16.15 

sn 

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103 

13.15 

550 

100% 


102A 

082 

5JB 

21613 


216A 

977 

657 

102% 


103% 

1256 

681 

105B 


107 A 

10.13 

KM 

KBs 


IMS 

996 

940 

100S 


101 J3 

950 

646 

IIBJi 


IMA 

1136 

657 

112% 

-k 

11441 

928 

889 

10«, 


10Fi 

7.19 

978 

1«H 



102,’. 

978 

985 

ms 


1094 

1102 

696 

1T9A 


122,*. 

1075 

755 

111% 


Hi,’. 

997 

756 

105H 

„- r 

108ft 


- 

100 

- 

inoft 

mar 

7.16 

113A 



118Q 

963 

7.17 

100,'. 



112ft 

645 

720 

B6B 

+A 

m 

8J9 

7JT 

ioa% 


112U 

654 

726 

105% 



106B 

1054 

7.45 

119% 

-A 

12*U 

1231 

601 

113% 

-A 

11% 

783 

7 it 

102A 


105% 

911 

754 

1QHS 

— 

1M 


TIBBS 1Z»jpc 2003-5 — 

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KQU Treat iNsto 2004-8 — 

112*4 Tm» 8pe 2006 tf 

10M2 Treat Spc 2009 

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731 

734 

106 

032 

128 

1122 

144 

112 

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+i 

112li 

645 

825 

106ft 


11V. 

7.11 

757 

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+i 

82% 

630 

625 

97ft 

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103JJ 

613 

626 

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620 

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637 

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936 

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WacUiRad (b) 

^pcVW.-TiDN 139 239 mu — ns,; »«A 

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3'Mtota — (710 127 185 17M 178i 1H« 

dpwn ,(1350 329 3.64 11<2 11GU 11 2)1 

ZftoTC 085) 340 167 161/. 1850 178J) 

2*2peTO (718) 148 170 lGJ*, — 1674. 161/, 

aijpe'll (74.fi) 152 172 168j; +A 173/, 186,'. 

2*ipe '13 (Big 356 174 1380 -£ 143 136/. 

T’SPC’IB 013) 160 177 147% -A 152% 1451 

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2*Me:i4tt: (97.7) 182 175 1170 -A 122 11M 

4*tpcT0» — (135.1) 183 176 116* -* 120% 113J) 

Rmpectfve reef nedempden rffle on prafede d taftaben of (1) 
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1509. 


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9SO 


NSW 


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lra« 7pe 2001 tt 

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liras Re 200343 

Treat ICpc 2003 

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750 

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750 

100H 

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1053 

954 

75* 

111Q 

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1174 

9.96 

767 

iiy 

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428 

971 

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+4 

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970 

758 

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114,*. 

720 

755 

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858 

600 

low 

+4 

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AsbfiDw 10%pc 2009 — 

Blare 11 hpc 2012 

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i3pc*«7-r. 


'£2 Cawsijpe*6l*ft. 
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91A CBnsDta2i»eH — 


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631 

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556 

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+4 

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641 

- xu 

__ 

384 

625 

- 30ft 

♦ft 

32S 

640 

- 59% 

-4 

32ft 


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PmpMlhttMd MtaMinead ndoinptlon ytalda are cakwlattd by H88C Oreanwaa Iran Bank « Encana Ming prion. 


S3 


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In pMKta per £100 imdnd of stock. 


902 
143 
104 
165 
11 12 
1038 
1031 
009 
9.00 
068 
403 


1325 


149 113% 
105 122 

- 105% 

- 104 

- 110% 
141 144A 

- 131 

- 38% 

- 33 

067 119 

7JB 74% 
453 138% 
4j48 133 

- 124% 


*»& 139 1124 

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104 1 M 

— 110% 110% 

*1tt 1S2* 143« 
+1% 138% 129% 
~ 41 

+% 35 

+% 124% iib% 
Hz 76 “ 
+1% 141% 

♦1% 139 

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FINANCIAL TIMES WEEKEND APRIL 6/APRIL 7/APRIL S 1996 


COMMENT & ANALYSIS 


UK property: off .the floor 


Number One Southwark Bridge. London SE1 9HL 
Tel: +44 171-873 3000 Telex; 922186 Fax: +44 171^07 5700 


Percentage change 


•'•wiiBon 






'JkZ&£aB5i 


pi®® 


Saturday April 6 1996 


25% j . 

| Mortgage lending 
; ? (left scale) 


r-toe 


Annual average % change 


Alliances in 
Ireland 


— .210 


20 % *- 


Yorks 4 Humb 


East Midlands 


15 % jp 


East AngBe 


SE (Exd London) 0J3 


Eighty years after Patrick Fearse 
and his comrades seized the Dub- 
lin General Post Office, on Easter 
Sunday 1916. Britain still races the 
threat of violence from Irish 
republicans who believe the revo- 
lution started that day remains 
incomplete. The IRA, in its 1996 
Easter message, explicitly re- 
affirms its refusal to lay down its 
weapons. The memory of the 
Docklands bomb on February 9 is 
still fresh, and there is an all too 
familiar sense of tension in 
Britain this weekend. The IRA's 
threats are anything but idle. 

This is all the more discourag- 
ing in that the British and Irish 
governments have now met the 
demand by Sinn Fein, the IRA's 
political wing, for a him date on 
which all-party talks will start. 
The demand for prior “decommis- 
sioning' 1 of some or all the IRA's 
weapons, which had been the 
main stumbling block, has been 
dropped. The only condition for 
Sinn Fein's participation is now 
“the unequivocal restoration of 
the ceasefire of August 1994". But 
that is precisely what the IRA is 
refusing to give. 

The enormous disappointment 
of February 9 has prompted many 
questions. Same focus on the cir- 
cumstances in which the “peace 
process” broke down; in particu- 
lar. on the extent to which the 
British government was to blame. 
Was it wise to dig in for so long on 
an issue it eventually had to con- 
cede? Having decided finally to 
give way. by accepting the Mitch- 
ell report was it wise to obscure 
this fact by appearing to erect a 
new precondition in the shape of 
elections to an Ulster assembly? 

But those are not the only, and 
perhaps not the most important 
questions. If the process was so 
fragile, was it not perhaps flawed 
from the outset? If the IRA was 
ready to resume violence on so 
flimsy a pretext, what was the 
value of Sinn Fein's co mmi tment 
to pursue a settlement through 
“exclusively peaceful methods"? 


cess has concentrated too much 
on bringing in the extremists on 
both sides and too little on build- 
ing trust between the mainstream 
parties representing the two com- 
munities. Comparison is often 
made with South Africa, where Mr 
F W de Klerk and Mr Nelson 
Mandela formed an alliance across 
the racial divide in order to steer 
their country away from violence. 
No such alliance has been formed 
between Mr John Hume, the SDLP 
leader, and Mr David Trimble of 
the Ulster Unionists. 


Greater London -4X4 


West Midlands 


— 12 


I ' — 1.0 

Property transactions 
(right scale) Foresaw 


Northern Ireland 


TS95- 

nm 

1887 

—3.8 

1JB 

3* 

-3.1 

13 

si 

-SL5 

22 

3.7 

-1.2 

1JS 

3A 

03 

1-8 

3.7 

-04 

1.1 

3.1 

-1.3 

Z9 

4.0 

-1 2. 

an 

44) 

-3.7 

0.1 

3.1 

-08 

07 

3.1 

nfl 

2.7 

44) 

06 

8 a 

3j8 

-1.7 

2 n 

34 




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so ss . 2001 


■ HaHax Sgues factual) 



m 


SIS 


Mortgage lending and transactions 


Regional house price changes 


Lenders' house price indices 


Disappointed expectation 

Unlike the Irish government and 
the other nationalist parties in 
Ireland (including the Social Dem- 
ocratic and Labour party in the 
north). Sinn Fein has still not 
accepted that Northern Ireland 
will remain part of the UK as long 
as the majority of its inhabitants 
so wish. If the IRA was persuaded 
to halt the violence In 1994 by 
leaders who argued that non- 
violent politics would now bring 
rapid progress towards a united 
Ireland, that expectation was 
bound to be disappointed and vio- 
lence was bound to be resumed, 
sooner or later. 

Many people feel the peace pro- 


Sisyphean task 

Instead it is left to the two gov- 
ernments to discover common 
ground and then coax their respec- 
tive proteges towards it. But this 
bas proved a Sisyphean task, 
because the proteges are forever 
looking over their shoulders, fear- 
ing competition from more Intran- 
sigent forces within their own 
communities. Mr Hume has 
derated all his energies to bring- 
ing Sinn F6in into the process. Mr 
Trimble has to compete with the 
Rev Ian Paisley's Democratic 
Unionist party - and does so by 
insulting the most sympathetic ' 
Irish government unionists have \ 
ever had to deal with. Neither | 
man seems willing to give priority ' 
to good working relationships ; 
with the other. 

Another question that bas been 
asked is whether both govern- 
ments have concentrated too 
much on negotiating with political 
parties which, however sincerely 
committed to non-violence, derive 
their reason d’etre from the exis- 
tence of separate communities 
with conflicting aspirations. Could 
more have been done to foster 
those many elements in Northern 
Irish civil society, starting with 
the business community, which 
operate across confessional bound- 
aries and are anxious to free the 
province from its sectarian heri- 
tage? Might the peace process 
have fared better if more had been 
done to make members of the 
minority in Northern Ireland feel 
they were truly equal citizens, by 
tackling the “four ps”: police, pris- 
oners. poverty and parity of 
esteem? 

Perhaps. But it would be naive 
to imagine there is a quick fix to 
be found in any of these areas. 
The more the British government 
appears to lean towards the 
minority, the more suspicious and 
defensive the majority will 
become. In the end, it is the union- 
ists who have to be persuaded that 
the Irish identity of their Catholic 
fellow citizens does not threaten 
them. And it is the IRA which, by 
continuing to threaten them with 
actual violence, makes the task of 
persuasion so appallingly difficult 


Reasons to be wary 

Robert Chote on the latest recovery in the UK housing market 


L ike the Grand National 
and the Oxford and Cam- 
bridge Boat Race, sight- 
ings of “recovery" in the 
housing market have 
become a traditional ritual of the 
British spring. As the docks go for- 
ward, so the nation's estate agents 
shake off their winter gloom and 
proclaim that thk time - maybe - 
the upturn is going to last. 

The evidence of recovery is clear 
to see. House prices are rising at 
their fastest rate for six years, mort- 
gage lending is accelerating and 
more people are traipsing around 
suburban show homes, mentally 
visualising new cur tains and carpet 
But we have seen it all before. In 
three of the past four years, the 
housing market has surged in the 
early months of the year only to foil 
flat after Easter. This time the 
omens are promising, but there are 
still reasons to be wary of a setback. 

For the moment, though, the 
news is good. Halifax Building Soci- 
ety reported this week that its 
national index of house prices had 
risen for the eighth successive 
month in March and by the largest 
amount in two years. Over the past 
three months, house prices have 
risen at a rate equivalent to nearly 
10 per cent a year, taking the aver- 
age to £63210. But this has in effect 
only reversed the decline seen early 
last year. 

Demand for home loans has 
meanwhile been increasing. Net 
mortgage lending by the UK’s big- 
gest banks increased to a seasonally 
adjusted £631m in February, from 
£578m in the previous month. 
Lending by building societies 
fell a little between between the 
same two months - in part 
reflecting a loss of market share 
to the banks - but lending 
remained more than 10 per cent up 


on in the same month a year ago. 

Mr Joe Dwyer, chief executive of 
Wimpey, the UK's largest house- 
builder, says the number of visitors 
to - and sales of - new homes so 
far thic year bas been much the 
same as In the equivalent period of 
last year, but with builders operat- 
ing from fewer sites this repre- 
sented an underlying improvement 
The House Builders' Federation also 
recently reported a rise in the vol- 
ume of people visiting sites and 
reserving properties, while the 
number of completed transactions 
has also picked up. 

But will this recovery endure, 
where others have fizzled out? The 
present momentum bodes well, ana- 
lysts believe. “With mortgage rates 
having fallun to their lowest level 
for 30 years, this is likely to main- 
tained”, argues Mr David Walton, 
economist at Goldman Sachs, the 


investment bank. As a proportion of 
income, mortgage payments are 
now at their lowest level since the 
late 1970s. Interest rates may start 
rising again at some stage in the 
next few months, but competition 
among lenders is expected to help 
keep mortgage rates relatively low. 

“Affordability, having improved 
sharply since end-1990, will deterio- 
rate somewhat in 1997 as the base 
rate rises", says Mr David Kern of 
NatWest Group. “However, with the 
base rate forecast to average 65 per 
cent over the next five years, hous- 
ing will remain by historical stan- 
dards very affordable between now 
and 200L" 

The housing Tnarkrt: sho uld als o 
be buoyed by rising incomes. In 
1995 average earnings did not 
increase quickly enough to keep 
pace with price rises and tax 
increases, leaving many people in 


work worse off. But real disposable 
income is now increasing again and 
is expected to accelerate as the pro- 
ceeds of tax cuts feed into people's 
packets. A number of these came 
into effect yesterday, including a lp 
cut in the basic rate of income tax. 

But this may not be enough to 
keep the recovery going in the short 
term. Mr Ian Shepherdson, at HSBC 
Markets, argues that the rate at 
which house prices have increased 
in the past few months will prove 
impossible to sustain, in part 
because fixed-rate mortgage offers 
are disappearing or getting more 
expensive. 

“Unless mortgage approvals pick 
np sharpish, then prices will not be 
growing as quickly as they have in 
recent months,” Mr Shepherdson 
says. But he adds that house prices 
will still end the year 5 per cent 
higher than they started it 


The persistent Easter myth 


H ope springs eternal In 
estate agents' hearts, 
but in the Midlands 
there are signs this year 
that the optimism might at last be 
justified. 

Across the 27 branches of Ship- 
ways estate agents in the region, 
1996 has seen a flurry of activity by 
buyers and sellers after several 
years of stagnation and decline. 
Sales rose 16 per cent to 900 homes 
in the first quarto- iff the year over 
the same period in 1995. 

But the market still has a moun- 
tain of misery to climb. Many 
homeowners have yet to come to 
terms with substantial losses. And 
prices show few signs of improve- 
ment 


"I think it is definitely premature 
to suggest that prices are moving 
up," says Mr Peter Veitch of Had- 
leigh chartered surveyors and 
estate ageots in Birmingham. 
“There is a colossal backlog of 
unsold properties, which have been 
for sale for four years or even 
more.” 

Good news on mortgage rates 
and taxes has been balanced by Job 
cuts in both manufacturing and 
services in the Midlands. 

Mr Bob Scarff, managing director 
of Dixons, a Birmingham estate 
agency, says: “It’s not the feelgood 
factor, but the feel-not-so-bad fac- 
tor. The biggest thing that bas held 
people back is the thought that 
prices could go down further. If 


they were th miring of buying a big 
house at £80,000, they were worried 
about it going down to £60,000 in 
. 12 months. Now people feel that 
Wuut happen.” In such a conserva- 
tive market, it is not surprising 
that smaller, cheapo- homes have 
fared better. 

Few expect wonders from what 
used to be the traditional Easter 
rush to buy homes. “Still the 
Easter myth persists,” says Mr 
Veitch, “with all the clients think- 
ing this is the best time to adver- 
tise. Then everyone moans they 
had no response. I'm afraid it wifi 
be the same story next year too.” 


Richard Wolffe 


The outlook for the new boosing 
market will meanwhile be clouded 
by the overhang of unsold proper- 
tie with which builders woe left at 
the beginning of the year. 

The burden of mortgage and con- 
sumer debt is expected to continue 
acting as a brake on the housing 
market Between 1980 and 1990 the 
value of outstanding mortgage debt 
more than doubled relative to per- 
sonal disposable incomes. Since 
then it has stabilised and Mr Kern 
expects only a very gradual decline 
over the remainder of the decade. ' 
Almost 2m people remain trapped 
in “negative equity”, where the 
value of their house is insufficient 
to pay off their mortgage. 

But most analysts expect the debt 
burden to restrain the recovery, 
r ather than extinguish it Mr Kern 
expects house price increases to 
average 2 per cent across the UK 
this year. For the rest of the decade 
Mr Kern predicts price increases 
averaging 3.5 per emit a year. A 

Is any thing likely to throw these 
predictions into doubt? Two obvious 
possibilities suggest themselves. 
One is the danger that February's 
unexpected rise in unemployment 
might be repeated. “People already 
say that job insecurity is the big- 
gest deterrent to buying a house 
and that affordability is not a prob- 
lem", Mr Dwyer says. 

The other potentially disruptive 
factor could be the approach of a 
genera] election. 

Mr Dwyer argues that people 
might buy early to beat a Labour 
government, but some economists 
fear the uncertainty generated by a 
looming election could stall the 
housing market for several months. 
For a Conservative party relying on 
rising house prices to help them to 
victory that must be a worrying 
prospect 


•LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 

Number One Southwark Bridge, London SE1 9HL 


We are keen to encourage letters from readers around the world. Letters may be foxed to +44 171-873 5938 (please set fox 
to 'fine'), e-mail: letters.edi tor@ft.com Translation may be available for letters written in the main international languages. 



N? 1 


Wrong view of 
electorate 


Cause for concern over single currency 


From Mr Richard Briutm. 

Sir, Philip Stephens demonstrates 
a worrying lack of contact with the 
electorate about which he makes 
such confident assertions 
("Imitation to honesty in the 
halfway house". April 2>. While 
accepting that the electorate 
"dislikes the idea of being pushed 
around by foreigners" he 
contradicts himself by saying voters 
regard sovereignty as a a “political 
abstraction". 

What is sovereignty if not a desire 
for the country in which one lives 
to make decisions without being 
“pushed around by foreigners'? 

He has it quite the wrong way 
round to claim that voters do not 
understand this issue while, 
according to him. readily 
understanding "the link between 
Europe and prosperity". It is that 
which remains a "political 
abstraction" to the great mass of 
the British public. 


From Mr Selwyn Hodson -Pressing er. 

Sir. Many wbo worked in Europe 
in recent years, like me, appreciated 
the merits of a common currency, it 
was something the D-Mark was 
already fast resembling, being 
Europe's common currency by 
reference. For this reason many of 
us were initially enthusiastic about 
a single currency, which seemed a 
logical progression from the 
common currency. 

However, the full implications of 
Emu and the difficulties arising 
from Maastricht's timetable for the 
imposition of a single currency give 
genuine cause for concern. To 
maintain the present momentum 


for currency union looks 
Increasingly impracticable In view 
of prevailing economic conditions. 
This is surely not the manner in 
which to defend the Franco-German 
axis and the cause of European 
integration. Sadly, Emu is not on 
the agenda of the 
intergovernmental conference 
which has just begun, but events 
may well ensure it receives the 
serious attention it deserves. 

As for issues set out in the UK 
government's recent white paper on 
Europe, they are clearly too 
important to be traded off lightly 
during these IGC negotiations. The 
UK must ensure its prime objective 


is generally understood: to remain a 
European partner, but only on 
terms that are acceptable. 

Britain's IGC negotiations would 
clearly benefit from the threat of a 
British plebiscite on the country’s 
continued full membership of the 
EU, not just on the single currency 
issue (as discussed in your article 
“Referendum for a rainy day". April 
3). Such a sword of Damocles 
hanging over the IGC proceedings 
should ensure UK interests were 
properly protected. 


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CORRECTION 


Mr Latham- Koenig 


A line was missing in Mr A. 
Latham-Koenig’s letter of April 2 on 

turning points in Soviet history- It 
should have read: . .and. espe- 
cially, the ending of the party s 
monopoly of political power by a 
vote of the central committee in 
February 1990 - which was the real 
and conclusive turning point . 


From Dr Stephen Bozen and 
Prof Mark P. Taylor. 

Sir, Michael Prowse ('Jobless by 
decree,' April 1) is dismissive of 
serious research on the effects of 
minimum wage legislation but is 
confident enough to conclude that 
such legislation is “foolish" on the 
basis of bis own 

back-oF-the-envelope calculations 
and his unsubstantiated claim that 
minimum wage laws have 
“substantially Increased 
unemployment" in Europe. On the 
last point the experience of France 
is worth examining since the 
relatively high French 
unemployment rate is a stock piece 
of evidence in these arguments. 

French competitiveness has 
improved substantially relative to 
the UK over the past 10 years - 
relative unit labour costs have 
fallen 8 per cent compared with a 3 
per cent fall for the UK, ev en taking 
Into account the devaluation of 
sterling. Moreover, the value of the 


French minimum wage relative to 
average earnings has fallen over the 
same period and fewer people 
actually earn the minimum (8 per 
cent in 1994 compared with 12 per 
cent in 1969). Hence, it is difficult to 
see how the minimum wage - or 
stronger social protection laws 
more generally - have made France 
less competitive and undermined 
profitability. 

The causes of French 
unemployment are more complex. 
The strong franc policy has had the 
desired effects of moderating both 
inflation and pay awards but it has 
had a deflationary impact on 
consumer and capital expenditure. 
The effects of this are exacerbated 
as the government has decided to 
cut the budget deficit in order to 
meet the Maastricht criteria for 
European monetary union. In 
addition, several important sectors 
of the French economy - notably 
agriculture, finance and the civil 
service - are at present undergoing 


a period of restructuring 
which generally involves 
downsizing. 

But clearly France’s relatively 
high unemployment is not caused 
by the minimum wage or by higher 
levels of social protection than are 
eqjoyed in the UK. The link 
between the minimum wage and 
unemployment is similarly tenuous 
in other European countries. 

Mr Prowse's article is an 
interesting exercise in drawing a 
crooked line between an 
unwarranted assumption and a 
foregone conclusion but it should 
not be taken seriously. 


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FINANCIAL TIMES WEEKEND APRIL S/APRIL 7/APRIL 8 1996 



COMMENT & ANALYSIS 


V/ Va/ 




; market 


1 

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lU i ■“ 

*.ih • 

• I > « i 


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1 1 4 * ** 





O nly two years ago 
Shimon Peres, 
brad's prime mi* 
ister, borrowed 
words from Gabriel Garcia 
Marque2, the novelist and 
described himself as an 
"unpaid dreamer”. 

It seemed fitting for a man 
who appeared destined to sit 
out his career as number two 
to Yitzhak Rabin, then the 
prime minister. Mr Peres 
forged bold, and sometimes 
fanciful, ideas about a new 
Middle East while Rabin wor- 
ried about the domestic con- 
stituency. 

The Rabin-Peres double act, 
which had dominated Labour 
party politics since the early 
1970s, seemed a winning com- 
bination in a revolutionary era 
of mak in g peace with Arab 
foes. As Rabin, a farmer army 
chief, talked and acted tough 
with the Palestinians, playing 
to the deep-rooted fears of 
Israelis about their personal 
security, Mr Peres pressed the 
peace agenda on a reluctant 
Rabin and an unsure nation. 

But the assassination of 
Rabin last November and the 
assumption of the premiership 
by Mr Peres deprived the dou- 
ble act of its bad cop and Hag 
left Mr Peres scrambling to 
remould his image. 

As he prepares for the May 
29 general election. Mr Peres’s 
dreaming days seem an elec- 
toral liability. He is burying 
his visionary ideas and dust- 
ing down his hardline rhetoric. 


Man in the News * Shimon Peres 

Unpaid dreamer wakes up 

Israel s prime minister is remoulding hims elf for the election, says Julian Ozanne 


This week he dropped a 
political bombshell by saying 
he would seek a referendum 

among Israelis -a risky propo- 
sition with an uncertain out- 
come - on a final peace agree- 
meat with Palestinians, 
embracing the future status of 
Jerusalem, of Jewish settle- 
ments in the occupied territo- 
ries, and of Palestinian state- 
hood. 

Much is at stake. A Peres 
victory should guarantee the 
completion of the five-year 
peace process begun with the 
Palestinians in 1993. And it 
may result in a comprehensive 
Middle East peace agreement 
embracing Syria and T^»hannn 
and leading to a normalisation, 
of relations with the rest of 
the Arab world. Such an agree- 
ment would underpin Israel's 
phenomenal economic growth 
of recent years, driven by the 
Opening Of new Tnarkmts and 
die access to international cap- 
ital that peace has delivered. 

A vict ory by the opposition 
rightwing bloc lead by Mr Ben- 
jamin Netanyahu, the Likud 
leader, would throw the peace 
process into crisis- Mr Netany- 
ahu, who has said he .would 


not negotiate directly with Mr 
Yassir Arafat, the Palestinian 
president, opposes territorial 
concessions on the Israeli- 
occupied Golan Heights. 
Senior Palestinian nffiriaiq gay 
such policies would cause 
their immediate withdrawal 
from the peace 
Mr Peres, bom in White Rus- 
sia in 1923. is already guaran- 
teed a place in history. He has 
held almost every miniRt o p ai 
post and played a role in most 
of Israel's crises since its birth 
in 1948. But an election victory 
would establish him as the 
pre-eminent Israeli peace- 
maker and would allow him to 
complete his vision of restruct- 
uring the Middle East 
Mr Peres faces a formidable 
challenge, however. A spate of 
suicide bombings by Palestin- 
ian extremists opposed to 
peace hit at his A chill es heel: 
his perceived inability to keep 
Israelis safe. The attacks also 
destroyed the substantial lead 
he had in opinion polls over 
Mr Netanyahu. 

The Palestinian attacks, 
combined with an increased 
number of attacks by Hizbol- 
lah guerrillas in southern Leb- 


anon, have forced Mr Peres to 
talk and act tough. He has 
sealed Israel's bonders with the 
Palestinians and ordered 
demolitions of Palestinian 
homes. He has declared war on 

the Hamas Is lamic movement, 
pushing Mr Arafat to crack 
down on it, and. reinforced 
security measures. 

In the wake of the suicide 
bombings he persuaded world 
leaders to come to an anti- 
terrorism summit in Egypt to 
express their support for 
Israel He also convinced US 
President Bill Clinton to come 
-to Israel for the third *im«» in 
his administration. 

Mr Peres has also dropped 
his visionary speeches of a 
new Middle East He used to 
say it would be a region domi- 
nated by “banks not tanks, 
ballots not bullets where the 
only generals will be General 
Motors and General Electric”. 

Instead he Is banging the 
war drums. He now taifes 
about a physical separation 
between Arab and Jew rather 
than integration and co- 
operation. 

“My belief in the vision of a 
new Middle East does not 


shake my complete commit- 
ment to national security,’' he 
said this week. It is unclear 
how much of a genuine con- 
- version Mr Peres under- 
gone. But it is obvious that he 
desperately needs to combat 
the negative image he has of 
being incapable of safeguard- 
ing security. 

Hus public view of Mir Perea 
is deeply ingrained. In the four 
elections he has fought as 
leader of the Labour party be 
has failed to win a single out- 
right victory. In the macho 
world of Israeli politics, up to 
now dominated by generals 
and those who fought for the 
creation of the Jewish state, 
Mr Peres' long history of work- 
ing inside Labour and govern- 
ment bureaucracy Viac been a 
liability. 

"He is often seen as the con- 
summate politi cian , the invet- 
erate insider a schemer,” 
says Mr Danny Ben-Siman of 
the leftwing Davar Rishon 
newspaper. “It's not a fair 
linage because be has done as 
much as anyone to build up 
Israel’s security and defence 
forces. But it remains 
thes ingle biggest obstacle 


to his chances of victory. ” 

Since the sharp foil in his 
popularity following the sui- 
cide attacks Mr Peres has 
clawed back a narrow lead. 
The latest opinion poll gave 
Mr Peres 51 per cent of the 
vote to 45 per cent for Mr 
Netanyahu. But he knows 
that, with seven weeks to go, 
such a lead is too dose for 
comfort 

Next week, after Passover, 

Israel will get foil-blown elec- 
tion fever and Mr Peres will 

have to brace himself for a 
hard-fought and probably 
vicious campaign. 

Recent polls have proved 
there are many Boating voters 
who will detide the outcome of 
the election. If the security sit- 
uation remains quiet - and Mr 
Arafat delivers on bis promise 
to amend the Palestinian cove- 
nant willing for the destruc- 
tion of the Jewish state - Mr 
Peres is in with a fighting 
chance. But another round of 
Islamist attacks would destroy 
his campaign 

Such a development could 
lose Israel its opportunity to 
solve tbe Middle East conflict 
once and far alL At least for 
the four-year term of a right- 
wing government, the hopes of 
Middle East peace would be on 
hold. For Mr Peres, defeat 
would mean a departure from 
active politics. That would 
force him, perhaps for tbe first 
time in his life, actually to 
become tbe “unpaid dreamer” 
be once believed hims elf to be. 




Psion: David among tho Goliaths 


1994 


1995 % 


0 <s) 


*1 CL 


Gross profit (Em) . • - 22-53 37J36 

Profft aftertax (Em) .. 422 } 7 A5 ■ +77% ■ 

RnaJ dividend 2.40p * 3^50p • : +46% 

, Tpbeil 
Scuco: Psten 


Worldwide hand-held computer market share 1995 

Psion 32.7% 



Soma: Fonwttr Rmui 


M 


The appliance of science 


Alice Rawsthom on a turning point for the cinema industry 

Flight to a new dimension 


ove over Filofax, 
here comes Psion. 
If the leather- 
bound personal 
organiser was the yuppie sym- 
bol of the high-spending 1980s, 
the discreet pocket-sized Psion 
3a hand-held computer is the 
-gadgnt -every :«xecutive most: 
have today. 

Psion, a 16-year-old British 
company, has taken some 
clever electronic engineering 
and turned it into the closest 
thing to a technological fash- 
ion accessory. 

For many Psion owners, life 
without their sleek battleship- 
grey electronic companion - 
complete with miniature key- 
board - is unthinkable. Some 
executives even have two, in 
case they lose one. 

These machines - which fit 
in the palm of a hand - are tbe 
powerful successors to the 
early electronic organisers 
which incorporated four basic 
functions: diary, address book, 
calculator and dock. 

Today's Psion has as much 
computing power as many 
desktop machines and a range 
of software to match. In addi- 
tion to tbe built-in software, 
which includes a word proces- 
sor package and a spreadsheet, 
dozens of supplementary pro- 
grams are available, ranging 
from electronic maps to wine 
guides. 

The brand loyalty that the 
London-based company has 
built up has helped it success- 
fully take on the giants of the 
worldwide computer and con- 
sumer electronics industry and 
secure leadership of the £300m 
world hand-held computer 
market It now manufacture 
one out of every three hand- 
held computers sold world- 
wide. Last year it posted a 78 
per cent increase in pre-tax 
profits to £ll.7m, 

Psion is now valued on the 
stock market at £235m. up 
from just £3m at the time of its 
1988 market debut, with the 


Paul Taylor on the maker of a 
gadget that today's executives 
cannot bear to be without 


stake held by Mr David Potter, 
chairman, and -chief executive 
valued at £68m. Last year 
alone, the workforce at its 
manufacturing sites in Green- 
ford, west London, and Milton 
Keynes, 1 Buckinghamshire 
expanded by 50 per cent to 900. 

But the picture has not 
always been so rosy. In the 
early 1990s tbe recession and 
the high cost of new product 
development plunged the com- 
pany £2m into the red and sent 
the share price tumbling. 

Many in the Crty were ready 
to write off Psion as another 
British high-tech blunder 
which - like Sinclair Electron- 
ics with its Z80 computers and 
Acorn Computer - made popu- 
lar products but lacked the 
business skills needed for 
long-term commercial success. 

However, Psion - which 
once made mainly hand-held 
industrial machines for stock- 
taking and meter-reading - has 
confounded tbe pessimists by 
exploiting a niche in the mar- 
ket for comparatively low- 
priced and easy-to-use hand- 
held personal computers. 

Last year the company sold 
350,000 of its innovative Series 
3 machines -at prices ranging 
from £250 to £400. Hand-held 
computers account for just 
under two-thirds of Psion’s 
£90.6m of sales, with other 
products Including software 
and modem communications 
devices. 

Mr Potter, an energetic 52- 
year-old who began bis career 
as a mathematician and physi- 
cist but dislikes being referred 
to as a “boffin", raised the seed 
capital for Prion by specula- 
ting on shares in a duvet- 
maker. 

When he founded the group. 


with his .wife as the other main 
sh ar eho l d er, he wanted to caU 
tt simply Tri’, after the (keek 
letter. But he discovered a US 
company with the same ini- 
tials, so be added the letters 
‘on’ “to make it sound grander 
- like Exxon". 

While maintaining close 
links with academia, he is criti- 
cal of tbe UK academic system 
which he believes fails to pro- 
vide scientists and engineers 
with enough basic business 
training. The result, he argues, 
Is that while UK companies are 
renowned for technical innova- 
tion, few have translated this 
into commercial success. 

I n the past he has also 
been critical of the City 
arguing that it has failed 
to back and support Brit- 
ish technological innovation. 
Nevertheless he believes that, 
with the right encouragement, 
comprises such as his own can 
compete effectively with their 
rivals in North America and 
Japan. 

At present he believes the 
biggest challenge facing Prion 
is “the speed at which the mar- 
ket is growing”. This means 
the -company has to keep 
expanding production just to 
maintain its market share. But 
he riafrnfl the group’s technol- 
ogy is at least 18 months ahead 
of its rivals in terms of func- 
tionality and ease of use. 

Last year about lm hand- 
held machines were sold 
around the world, a figure 
which analysts expect to grow 
to 6m by 2000 and to 12m by 
2003. "By the end of the 
decade, the hand-held com- 
puter will be a standard tool 
for every executive and profes- 
sional", Mr Potter says. 


With an eye to tbe future, 
the company has been budding 

- increased communications 
capacity into its machines. It 
recently launched a software 
programme allowing users to 
send and receive corporate 
e -mail. 

---It is soon expected to launch 
a machine* with built-in GSM 
(Global System for Mobiles) 
technology, enabling it to be 
used for wireless data 
exchange without a separate 
telephone handset. “Portable 
computing and communica- 
tions are like apple pie and 
cream: they go together”, Mr 
Potter says. 

But he knows that if Prion is 
to stay ahead in its race 
against deep-pocketed rivals 
such as Hewlett-Packard, 
Sharp and Sony, it must con- 
tinue to invest heavily in 
research while expanding its 
customer base. Last year 
the company spent a relatively 
high 6.2 per cent of 
revenues on research and 
development 

In an attempt to address this 
problem it intends soon to 
licence its operating system, 
the basic software which con- 
trols its products. It hopes that 
by doing tins it can generate 
additional revenues and per- 
suade licencees to bear a Share 
of future research and develop- 
ment costs. 

Mr Potter, an enthusiastic 
supporter of UK technology 
and manufacturing, explains 
the failure of many other UK 
high-tech companies to emu- 
late Psion's success by arguing 
that innovation alone is not 
enough. 

He believes that what has set 
Psion apart is a combination of 
its technological edge and the 
careful execution of an effec- 
tive business strategy. “Having 
a good idea is just a small part 
of business success,” he says, 
“the rest involves factors like 
manufacturing, distribution 
and marketing”. 


T be league table of tbe 
week’s highest gross- 
ing films in North 
America in Variety. 
Hollywood's parish magazine, 
changes as rapidly as the pop 
charts, but one film has been 
there every week for two years 
- Wings of Courage. 

Wings of Courage is an 
adventure film made by the 
Sony movie studio and starring 
Val Kilmer, best known as the 
caped crusader In Batman For- 
ever, and its longevity is all the 
more impressive as it is only 
On Show at eight fmemas in 
the US and Panada 
It was made with hnax 3D 
technology, which creates such 
realistic three-dimensional 
images that the viewers, who 
watch it through special head- 
sets, feel as though they are at 
the centre of the action. After 
Tears of being relegated to 
museums and theme parks, 
scores Of ningmas using Tmar 
and other futuristic film tech- 
nologies will opai this year 
showing Hollywood-style mov- 
ies like Wings of Courage. 

One of the ironies of the Em 
industry is that, although the 
studios spend minions of dol- 
lars on state-of-the-art special 
effects, most movies have been 
shot and shown in the same 
way since the invention of the 
talkies in the 1920s. 

Hollywood had a flurry of 
innovation in the 1950s to try 
to fend off competition from 
television. A few innovations 
survived, notably stereo sound. 
Others were quickly scrapped, 
including the ill-fated SmeU-O- 
Vision and the elongated 
Cinemascope screens that the 
movie mogul, Sam Goldwyn, 
described as making “a bad 
film look twice as bad”. 

In the late 1960s, three Cana- 
dian film-makers developed 
Imax technology to project 
hyper-realistic images on to 
giant screens using 70mm film, 
rather than standard 35mm. 
The Toronto-based Imax 
company has since adapted 
that system to relay 
tbreedimensional imag es. 

Imax and its US rivals 
Showscan and Iwerks. have 
also developed formats to 
accommodate “motion Simula- 
tion” technology, in which the 
cinema seats move to match 
movements in the film, such as 
car chases. This technology 
was devised for theme parks in 
tbe 1980s by George Lucas, 
director of Star Wars, and 
Doug Trumbull, a special 
effects expert on 200L A Space 
Odyssey. 



CMuMrMM 

Room with a view: the La G4ode cinema at a Paris science park 


Until recently, the commer- 
cial development of these new 
technologies was inhibited by 
tbe dearth of compatible films. 
It is impossible to adapt a 
35mm film to be shown on 
Imax or Showscan, so the films 
must be shot with special 
equipment, which is complex 
and costly. 

So far. the new technologies 
have been used largely in 
theme parks, including George 
Lucas’s Star Tours ride for 
Disneyland, and for short edu- 
cational films shown in muse- 
ums or science parks, such as 
the Showscan installation at 
the Tokyo Science Museum 
and the Imax cmema at La 
G£ode science park in Paris. 

Hollywood studios have not 
considered it financially viable 
to make Showscan. Imax or 
Iwerks films, as they can be 
shown in so few cinemas. Simi- 
larly, cinema operators have 
been loath to invest in Imax 
theatres (which cost from £5m) 
because of the shortage of 
films. 

Tbe turning point came two 
years ago when Sony launched 
Wings of Courage, the first 
Imax film featuring a Holly- 
wood star, director and studio. 
One of the main motivations 
for Sony, the Japanese elec- 


tronics group, when it acquired 
the Columbia-TriStar studios 
in 1989 was to apply its techno- 
logical expertise to the film- 
making process. 

Sony converted its cinemas 
at Lincoln Square in New York 
into a state-of-the-art complex 
of conventional theatres and 
an Imax 3D unit with a 80-by- 
100-ft screen. It commissioned 
Wings of Courage so it would 
have a Hollywood feature film 
to show there. 

The Tmax theatre opened in 
October 1994 and has since 
been sold out for most perfor- 
mances. 

Ms Barrie Loeks. who co- 
chairs Sony Theatres, said tbe 
company was “very, very 
pleased” with its progress. 
Sony has already premiered 
another Imax film. Across the 
Sea of Time, and plans to pro- 
duce up to three a year. It will 
open an Imax theatre in Tokyo 
this autumn and a thir d in Sim 
Francisco late next year. 
Another will be included in the 
flagship Sony Centre at Potsda- 
mer Platz in Berlin. 

Other companies are follow- 
ing Sony's lead. 20th Century 
Fox. the Hollywood studio 
owned by Mr Rupert Mur- 
doch's News Corporation, has 
negotiated a production joint 


venture with Imax as has Cap- 
ital Cities/ABC, part of Walt 
Disney. Mr Rich Gelfond, vice- 
chairman of says it is 

discussing production deals 
with three other studios. 

The prospect of more films 
has encouraged mainstream 
cinema operators to invest in 
iTTiaY. At present, there is only 
one Imax theatre in the UK, at 
the National Museum of Pho- 
tography, Film and Televirion 
in Bradford, but a second is 
due to open in 1997 at the 
Trocadero Centre an London's 
Piccadilly Circus. At least 
another four are planned, 
including one by the British 
Film Institute at Waterloo. 

A t present, there are 
129 imax installations 
worldwide, and the 
company is working 
on orders for 44 more. Simi- 
larly. Showscan has 31 orders 
in addition to its 61 installa- 
tions, most of which are in 
t heme parks and leisure cen- 
tres. including one at the 
Trocadero. Showscan recently 
introduced Showmax, a cine- 
ma-style format, to compete 
against Tmax in that market, 
but the latter company is suing 
for breach of copyright 
The Hollywood studios are 
also liaising with technology 
experts on other futuristic 
forms of cinema such as inter- 
active films, where the audi- 
ence determines the plot The 
results of this research will be 
used in conventional cinemas 
and in the theme parks run by 
the studios' parent companies. 

The commercial prospects of 
Imax and other new formats 
will be determined by the qual- 
ity of the films. “It's critical, " 
says Mr Ben Freedman, direc- 
tor of Robins Cinemas which 
operates the Showscan instal- 
lation at the Trocadero. “Peo- 
ple will come once far the tech- 
nological experience, but they 
will only come back If there's 
something new to see." 

At present, the Imax and 
Showscan production process 
is so cumbersome that it would 
be impossible to shoot a 
high-speed action film such as 
Die Hard or Heat. Imax is now 
investing in research to try to 
resolve that problem. 

“We’re still a Jong way off 
seeing a Die Hard on Imax” 
says Sony's Ms Loeks. “And 
we're not going to see Imax or 
anything else take over from 
conventional theatres in tbe 
foreseeable future. But there's 
clearly demand for them as an 
alternative - and they’re fan!" 


Membership of Manila’s leading golf clubs has become an important element in setting up deals in the Philippines, says Edward Luce 

M sass The above-par place for business 

nf wflAchni* trends In A • 


aoila's golfers think 
they have found a way 
of predicting trends in 
the Philippine capi- 
tal’s excitable property market 
The method is simpler track me 
price of Manila Golf and Country 
Club membership shares and the 
broader property market wffl foi- 
low 

A* glance at the recent movement 
of the exclusive club’s proprietory 
shares - one of wlucfc must be pm- 
chased before a membership appl- 
ication Is submitted - backs up the 

^Since 1993. the price of these 
shares has quadrupled to about 
24m pesos (£600,000). overtaking 
rates at Tokyo’s most expmsro 
courses. In the same period, real 
estate prices 

business district where the 30- 
hectare club is sitimted, 
tarly rocketed by about four times, 
to Si 0.000 pa- square metre. 

The story is Wortieal m Manila s 


second business district of Ortigas 
- home to the Wack Wack Golf and 
Country Club and headquarters of 
the Asian Development Bank- - 
where the two indicators have also 
quadrupled over the same period. 
Wack Week's shares are trading at 
about 10m pesos. • , 

Mr Jose Crespo, general; manager 

of the Manila Golf and Country 
Club, says tbe parallel holds good 
as far back as the 1950s. “When I 
joined in 1959, membership dues 
were around 9,000 pesos,” he says. 
“Now it is up at 24m- This tells the 
story of what has happened to 
Manila property prices since then.” 

According to Mr Crespo, fhesoar- 
ing cost of golf club membership 
reflects the rising popularity of the 
sport. Once considered a game for 
bored expatriates, golf has become 
an obsession for the Philippines 


business community. With the zeal 
of converts, the country’s business- 
men - and, more recently, busines- 
swomen - have invested huge sums 
fn the hope of finding themselves 
next to file governor of the central 
bank or tbe chairman of San Mig- 
uel brewery on the ninth hole. 

A quick scan of the list of the 
Makati dub’s 537 members is the 
equivalent of flicking through a 
condensed version of Who's Who in 
the UK. And, as in some of 
■ Britain’s more exclusive establish- 
ments, members can anonymously 
•' blackball hopeful applicants. 

First on the Makati dub's list is 
President Fidel Ramos, who has 
frequently Hmjpri ac cu sa tions that 
he is planning to rhang g the coun- 
try’s constitution so that he can 
run a second time for the presi- 
dency in 1998. His favourite retort. 


when challenged about It, i$ that he 
intends to spend the rest of his life 
on the golf course. This has done 
little to reassure his critics, who 
point to the number of meetings 
that he holds on the fairway. 

Underneath the president is a 
roll-can of the country's top execu- 
tives and their foreign counter- 
parts. The membership of the late 
Ferdinand Marcos is now in the 
bands of the former dictator's 
estate. 

Manila’s other dubs and courses 
reflect a similar pattern. At Ayala 
Alabang, for example, a prosperous 
southern suburb, the golf and coun- 
try club’s membership list is an 
index of that district’s business 
luminaries. Its proprietary shares 
are trading at about 3.8m pesos- 

Mr Brian Fredrick, chid execu- 
tive of the Hong Kong & Shanghai 


Bank in tbe Philippines, says that 
the bank’s Manila Golf membership 
card is an indispensable ticket for 
business networking. 

“One should not exaggerate the 
number of business deals actually 
clinched on the golf course,” says 
Mr Fredrick. “But there is no doubt 
about the fact that it is a very 
important part of the process.” 

Trading in tbe country’s golf and 
sports club shares is more informal 
than in cities such as Tokyo, where 
the Nikkei index of golf club 
shares, can be called up on screen. 
Manila's golf club brokers reckon 
that it will he a few years before 
membership prices go electronic. 

“At tbe moment, we only have 
three brokers officially trading 
club shares ” says Charry Manzano, 
an executive at MetroLand. a prop- 
erty and stockbroUng firm. “There 


are plenty of others doing it on a 
freelance basis, though.” She says 
that trading in golf shares Is 
becoming more sophisticated every 
month, with members leasing out 
their playing rights for up to 
600,000 pesos a year. 

Clubs, meanwhile, are forging 
reciprocal playing deals with over- 
seas counterparts. Members of the 
Manila Club, for example, can play 
at the Royal Bangkok Golf Club in 
Thailand, while Wack Wack’s golf- 
ers can tee off at Tokyo's Club 300 
when on business in Japan. 

“1 am oue of the few people who 
find the game deadly boring 
because it is so slow," admits Ms 
Manzano. “However, if I set up my 
own company there wouldn't be 
much choice. This is the way busi- 
ness is done in the Philippines. I'd 
have to force myself to like golf.” 


R3RSHTTHE 14™- 
SB£ THPIT BROKER 

AT THE WINDOW O 
ON THE 2.~p* p7) 

FLOOR 

1 lull 



i 



"•r T' 







FINANCIAL TIMES WEEKEND APRIL 6/APKU- 7/APRIL 8 


CURRENCIES AND MONEY 


MARKETS report 

Dollar dawdles 




Dollar 


Sterling 


D4Hark 


DM perS 

1.49 


Yen per S 


DM per £ 

2-27 — 


By Philip Gawrtti 


A stronger than expected 
March payrolls report in the 
US yesterday failed to provide 
fresh direction to the dollar 
which remained confined to 
the fairly narrow ranges which 
have characterised trading 
recently. 

Although bond prices fell 
quite sharply as traders con- 
cluded that the report made 
any early cut in US interest 
rates less likely, the dollar did 
not follow suit. Initially it ral- 
lied around half a pfennig to 
DM1.4S50. but then slipped 
back to close in London at 
DM1.4826. Against the yen it 
finished at Y107.46. 

Trade was very thin on 
account of the London market 
being closed for Easter, and US 
markets only staying open 
until lunchtime. 

The payrolls report had been 
keenly anticipated following 
the freakishly strong February 
report, which spooked the US 


bond market, without having 
much impact on the dollar. 
When markets reopen in ear- 
nest next week, the strength of 
the US economy may have an 
impact on the dollar, but there 
was little evidence of this yes- 
terday. 


1.4B ■—] 


■ Mr Klaus Said, head of for- 
eign exchange at JP Morgan in 
New York, said the dollar was 
“stuck", with illiquid trading 
conditions probably being the 






FFr per DM 

3.43 — - 



March 1996 Apr 


March 1996 Apr 


March 1996 Apr 


March 1996 Apr 


March 1996 Apr 


Source: FT Erie! 


money rates 

April 4 Over 

right 

One 

month 

Betgkm 

34 

3ft 

week ago 

a 

3Ji 

Franco 

4 

3C 

week ago 

4i 

3i> 

Germany 

34 


week ago 

3« 



5 It 

5W 

week ago 

6i 

5U 

ttahr 

9C 

5® 

week 300 

« 

93 

Netherlands 

3 

3 

week ago 

3i 

3 

Switzerland 

t«k 

1*k 

week ago 

1% 

I’M 

US 

sa 

5«' 

week ago 

53 

5« 

Japan 

Vi 

E 

week ago 


■i 


Sit 

Ovt 

Lomti. 

ns. 

tTrtha 

year 

inter 

mto 

+VJ 

3ft 

7.00 

3.00 

3i 

3ft 

7JJ0 

300 

42 

Ji 

3.60 

- 

4ft 

Jft 

A 30 

- 

3’+ 

3,’; 

800 

3.00 

3J 

31b 

5.00 

300 

S' a 

5ft 

- 

- 


3% 

- 

- 

fiJ 

03 

- 

900 

9’i 

9S 

- 

9.00 

3ft 

3ft 

- 

300 

3ft 

3 1 j 

- 

300 

13 

1 + 

500 

1 50 

11 

tv. 

60S 

1.80 

Si.1 

5 ; 

- 

5.00 

5ft 


- 

5.00 

ti 

2 

- 

osa 



- 

0.50 


■ PwBxt hi Haw Yorfc 


Apr5 

.. CbJM - 

-Prtv dose 

£ Spot 

1.5305 

1.5250 

1 mtti 

15395 

1.5343 

J mtn 

1JKH5 

liEU 

1 V 

15310 

151W 


only factor capable of generat- 
ing a decent move. “I favour 
the upside, but I don't have a 
position to support it." 

He said he was more confi- 
dent of the dollar rallying 
against the yen than against 
the D-Mark. Earlier in the 
week the dollar reached a 26 


month high against the yen, 
before falling back on renewed 
fears of a monetary tightening 
in Japan, which would support 
the yen. These stemmed from 
comments by Mr Yasuo Mat- 
sushita, the governor of the 
Bank of Japan. 

Ahead of the jobs report, Mr 
Eisuke Sakakibara. director of 
the international division of 
Japan's Ministry of Finance, 
said that these fluctuations 
“seemed to have ended”. 

The BOJ had earlier acted 
decisively on Thursday morn- 
ing by injecting a larger than 


expected amount of liquidity 
into the market in its morning 
operations. This offset the 
appreciation of the yen, and 
countered the suggestions that 
interest rates were set to rise. 

Mr Said said the dollar 
"doesn't want to go anywhere" 
against the D-Mark. "There is 
just no interest There is abso- 
lutely nothing going on.” He 
said any move at the moment 
was likely to be chart-driven, 
rather than the product of any 
fundamental analysis. 

Mr Joe PrendergasL econo- 
mist at Merrill Lynch in Lon- 


don, points out that the dollar/ 
D-Mark rate traded in a 6.45 
pfennig range, from high to 
low, during the first quarter. 
“This compares with an aver- 
age 14.25 pfennig range in the 
same quarter in the past ten 
years, and 15.9 pfennigs In the 
past five years.” he said. 

The one fairly new factor in 
the market is the decoupling of 
the dollar from the perfor- 
mance of the bond market. 
This leaves open the prospect 
that the dollar may rally on 
the prospect of higher 
short-term interest rates. 


although there has not yet 
been any evidence of this. 


■ On Thursday the South 
African rand was a focus of 
attention following the slide to 
a historic low of R4.14 against 
the dollar earlier in the week. 
Nerves were calmed after Mr 
Trevor Manuel, the new 
finance minister, reiterated the 
government's' commitment to a 
gradual easing of exchange 
controls. Mr Chris Stals, the 
central bank governor, also 
confirmed that be planned to 
stay in office until 1999. 


■ S UBOR FT London 

Interbank Ftadnfl - 1 

week ago 

US Donor CDs 
week ago 
ECU Linked Da 
week ago 
SDR Linked Do 

weak ago - 

S UBOfl mortal* tuna ram are 
m llem each warUnfl day. Tim 

WoramraHw. 

Mu ram ora shown tor Uw ww 

EURO CURRENCY 


5ft 

SE 

S*T 

5 ft' 

- 

- 

5ft 

5J5 

S"» 

53 

■ 


5.10 

5.11 

5 18 

5-11 

- 

- 

5.T0 

5.12 


5.44 

- 


4S 

4ft 

4ft 

its 

- 

“ 



4ft 

4S 

- 


3ft 

3£ 

3% 

3t 

- 

“ 

3ft 

3L' 

3i« 

3Ji 

- 

- 


i rata tor Slum aucina id mo mm™ ut ™ 
n: Sartrera Trust. Bank W Town. B*wbi m Natural 


one Mmi Ram. USS CDs. ECU & SOH U*od Owxnna ©*) 

INTEREST RATES 


Three Six 

martin month) 




ftDOliLAft S*?OT FORWARD AGAINST THE' DOLLAR , 


Europe 

Austro 

Belgium 

Denmark 

Fnland 

Franca 

Germany 

Greece 

Ireland 

Italy 

Luxembourg 

Netherlands 

Nomw 

Portugal 

Span 

Sweden 

Switzerland 

UK 

Ecu 

SORT 

America* 

Argentina 

Bor* 

C-orurta 


Closing 

rmd-onm 

Change 
on day 

B-d/oMcr 

spread 

Day’s Mid 

high low 

One month 

Rate %PA 

Three months 
Rate %PA 

One year 

Rate %PA 1 

Bank of 
Eng. Index 

iSchi 

169374 

+0.0356 

330 - 437 

15.9496 15.9165 

15.8718 

23 

15.8249 

22 



105.8 

iBFrt 

46 5742 

+0.1015 

474 - 009 

46 6010 464970 

46.4692 

2.7 

482593 

2 7 

45.3392 

2.7 

107 9 

iDKr) 

B.75D6 

+0.0301 

453 - 558 

6. 7560 8.7390 

8.739 

1.6 

a 7142 

1.7 

8.6076 

1.6 

108.7 

(FM) 

7. (HI 4 

-0.0128 

864 - 964 

7 0980 7.0800 

7.087 

0.7 

7 0789 

0.7 

- 

- 

B23 

(FFil 

7 7318 

+0.01 78 

163 - 268 

7.7309 7.7026 

7 7069 

2.0 

7.6863 

1 8 

7.5861 

1.8 

109.8 

IW) 

33665 

+0005 

658 - 672 

3.3715 21-631 

2.2014 

2.7 

32513 

2.7 

2ft? 045 

2.7 

109il 

lOri 

368315 

+0 63 

063 - 367 

366.735 367 462 

- 

- 

- 

- 

- 

- 

66.6 

no 

0.9697 

- 0.0001 

689 - 705 

0.9706 0.9685 

0.969 

0.9 

0 9675 

0.9 

0.9625 

0 7 

97.6 

(LI 

3388 63 

♦5 72 

819 - 90S 

2392.05 2385.48 

2396.87 

-4.1 

2411.97 

-3.9 

2464.67 

-3ft! 

74.0 

(LFrl 

46.5743 

+0.1015 

474 - 009 

46.6010 46.4970 

46.4692 

2.7 

462592 

2 7 

45 3392 

2.7 

107.9 

(FT) 

2.5317 

+0.0047 

297 - 336 

2^336 2.5389 

2 5258 

2.8 

2.5135 

29 

2.4618 

2.8 

1083 

(Nkrl 

9.8063 

+0.0118 

033 - 101 

9.3200 9.7988 

9.7972 

1.1 

9.7781 

1.1 

9 6824 

1.3 

96.9 

I 63 ) 

233 440 

+□.243 

249 - 631 

233 631 233.081 

233.865 

- 2.2 

234.77 

- 2 ft) 

- 


85.6 

iPta) 

109.573 

+0.J91 

412 - 734 

189.734 189.121 

190 008 

- 2 L 8 

190.828 

- 2.6 

193.673 

-22 

82ft? 


Closing Change Bid/offer 
nid-pant on day spread 


Day's mid One month Three months One year JJP Morgan 
high low Rate %PA Rate %PA Rate %PA indent 


Europe 

Austria 

Belgium 

Denmark 

Finland 

France 

Germany 

Greece 

Ireland 

Italy 


Befcan Franc 
Danish Krone 
D-Mark 
Dutch Quieter 
French Franc 
Ponuguase Esc. 
Spanish Peseta 
Stering 
Swiss Franc 
Con. OcBar 
US Doter 
ttaRan Lira 
Yen 


(Sch) 10.4251 
(BFiJ 30.4055 
(DM 5.7240 
(FM) 4.6307 
(FFr) 5.051 1 
(DM1 1.4826 
(Dr) 240.860 
(IQ 1.5765 
<U 1562.47 


Luxembourg (LFi) 304655 
Motherlands (FT) 1.6560 


(SKr) 10.1517 -0.0141 424 ■ 610 10.1895 10.1299 10.1529 -0.1 10.1546 -0.1 10.1568 -0.1 

(SFri 1 .8277 - 266 -287 1.8292 1 8244 1 0213 4.2 1.8086 4.2 1.7518 42 

(0 - - - 

1.2179 +0 0024 170 - 188 1.219-3 1-M58 1-2106 1ft) 12136 1.4 1.2003 1.4 

- 1.045900 - - - - - - - - - - 


(Peso! 1.5282 - 0.0012 279 - 205 1 5311 1 5278 


Bom tRS) 1 5008 *0 0012 083 - 033 1.5111 1.S078 

Canada (CSl 2.0742 -0.001 734 - 749 2.0774 2.0711 

Mexico (New Peso] 11.5039 -0.0018 790 - 287 11.5287 11.4890 

USA (5) 1.5285 +0.0013 285 - 290 1.5313 1.3273 

Padfk/Middbi Emf/Africn 

Austraia I AS) 1.9516 -00024 506 - 525 1.9557 l.gsoi 

Hong Kong (HKSi 11.8214 -0.0096 187-241 11.8397 11.8122 

India (Fts) 52.1686 +0.0808 454 - 918 52 2918 51 9720 

Israel (SUM 4.7902 +0 0042 856 - 948 4.7951 4.7294 

Japan (Y> 164.280 +0.837 192 - 388 164.490 163.960 

Malaysia (MSI 3.6700 +00046 686 - 714 3J3740 3 8673 

New remand (NZS| 2.239 1 -0.0015 376 - 406 22430 22376 

PWBpptnes (Peso) 39.9769 +0.0327 939- 598 40.0598 39.6939 

Saudi Arabia (SR) 5.7339 +0.0048 328 - 351 5.7431 5.7293 


AustraSd 

(AS) 

1.9516 

Hong Kong 

(HKSl 

11.8214 

India 

(Rs) 

52.1686 

Israel 

(ShW 

4.7902 

Japan 

(Y) 

164J280 

Malaysia 

(MS) 

3.8700 

New Zealand 

(NZS) 

22391 


PWBpptnes (Pesol 39.9769 
Saudi Arabia (SRI 5.7339 
Sngaoore (SS) 2.1476 
South Africa (HI 62717 
South Korea (Won) 119050 


(SRI 5.7339 +0.0048 328 - 351 5.7431 5.7293 

(SS) 2.1476 +0 0032 465 - 487 2.1499 2.1465 

(R1 62717 -0.014 630 - 804 62805 62630 

Von) 119220 +0.97 £23 - 277 1194.41 1191.60 

(TS1 41.5591 -0.0383 400 - 781 41.6857 41.5373 

(Btl 38.6009 +0.0468 793 - 225 38.&590 385710 


2.0735 

0.4 

2.0698 

CL8 

2.0617 

0.6 

84.6 

1.5281 

0.5 

1.5267 

0.5 

1.5193 

0.6 

956 

1.9542 

-1.6 

1.9592 

-1.6 

1.9845 

-1.7 

91.6 

11.9135 

0.8 

11 8017 

0.7 

11.7819 

a.a 


163.555 

52 

162.066 

5.4 

155.65 

5.3 

135.8 

22441 

-2.7 

2ft! 538 

-2.8 

2ft»74 

-22 

106.6 

- 

- 

- 

- 

- 


- 


Norway 

Portugal 

Span 

Sweden 

Switzerland 

UK 

Ecu 

SORT 

Americas 

Argentina 

Brazil 

Canada 


(NKr) 6.4145 
(Es) 152.700 
(Pta) 124205 
|5Kr) 6.6405 

(SFt) 1.1955 
(Q 1.5288 

- 12553 

- 0.68540 


+0.0147 233 
+0.0415 530 
+00085 215 
+0.0046 362 
-0.0076 486 
+0.0021 824 
+0215 800 
+0.0013 755 
+2.47 244 
+0.0415 530 
+0.0017 550 
+0.0024 130 
+0.1 600 
+022 920 ■ 
-0.0147 355 • 
-0.001 950 ■ 
+0.0013 285 
-0.0015 545 - 


Short term ram , 


3H- j*4 
4&-3B 
3.’. - 3A 
3A-2S 
A. 1 . - 3% 
7fi-7% 
6i-7jj 

e - 5% 
i'i - Hi 
5A- 5 

Sh ■ SU 
10,** - 8,1 
&-.i 

i*a - ih 
e cal tar m 


3U -3*4 
4A - an 
3* 

3.‘. - 213 
4* -3ft 
7S-7U 
7!! - 7i3 
6 - 5% 

1 ft - 1.1 

5.1 - 4* 
5*8 - 5>4 

sjj-9 a 

4-u 
I s # ■ 1^ 

US DoHor and 


3ji - aft 

4>s - 37, 
3]i - 3A 

aft-* 

4A - 3|! 
7\ - “J4 
- 7 ’o 

e - si: 

ik - Ih 
5 - 4\ 
9**S& 

9% - 9- T « 

13-13 
- n. 

Yen. ottm 


3*B - 3'rt 313 * 3ft 
4L, - 4 41,-4 


3ft - 3ft 3U - 3ft 
3,1 - K|2 3.1 - 2S 


4ft - 4 ft 4ft ■ 4ft 
“J+ - rSJ ?», 7lj 


77j - 7\ TTs - Ti, 

6ft ■ 5*1 - 6ft 

lii-Ti 


JJs - 5 5.1 - V. 

5ft - 5ir 5ft - 5*4 


9a - 9-1 9fi - 9.1 

Ji - ft 3 4 - II 


ri| - 2 2U - 2*8 

im -lavs' nouta 


■ 1MUE MONTH PtBOR FUTURES (MAT1F) Pans mtertMnk offered rate (PFf5n» 



Open 

Sen price 

Change 

High 

Low 

Est VO) 

Open n 


Jun 

65.72 

9573 

_ 

95 75 

9572 

15ft?05 

59,473 \ 


Sep 

95.68 

95.70 

*0.01 

95.70 

95 68 

4293 

51,237 

y 

Dec 

95-52 

9553 

- 

95.55 

95.51 

4.377 

2-1.961 



■ THREE MONTH EUROMAHK FUTURES (UFFE}' DMlm pdnta rt 100% 


Argentina (Paso) 0.9997 

Brazil (RS) 0-9670 

Canada |CS1 13568 

Maxlcu (New Peso) 7.5250 

USA (S) 

PmUc/HEddta East/Africa 
Australia (AS) 12765 

Hong Kong IHKS) 7.7327 


-998 - 397 1.0002 0.9996 - - - - - 

- 868 - 871 - - - - - - - - 

-00018 565 - 570 1.3572 12558 1.3566 0.1 1.3569 0.0 1.3597 -02 83.9 

-0.005 100 - 400 7.5400 7.5100 7.5273 -0.4 7.5305 -0.3 7.5353 -0.1 

96.6 



Open 

Sett price 

Change 

High 

Low 

Est. vd 

Open (iL 


98.78 

98.78 

. 

96.80 

96.77 

12738 

221529 

Sep 

96.70 

96.70 

- 

96.73 

96.68 

12402 

221490 

Dec 

98.44 

96.44 

+ 0.01 

96.44 

96.42 

13013 

183303 

Mar 

96.10 

9611 

- 

98.12 

96.07 

6790 

109808 


! MONTH B1IROURA FUTURES (UFFET LlOOOm pants d 100% 


(Rs) 34.1250 
IShK) 3.1334 
(Y) 107.460 
(MS) 2.5315 


New Zealand (NZS) 1.4646 

PtvHppines (Peso) 26.1500 

Saudi Arabia (SR) 3.7507 

Singapore (SS) 1.4048 

South Africa (R) 4.1025 


South Korea (Wan) 7BO.OSO 


t Raws for Apr a BrJrofler apreoch In the Pound Spol ubto show o«y the test thm dectmri places. ForaanJ ram are nen drecOy quoiod n tha msrtei twu 
jtd fenpOed by current merest raid Swrbvg Inde* ataUad by the Bar* ef Engtand. Bose average 1990 = 100. Indu rabaaed 1/2/95. Bid. Olfar oral 
Md-ram kr both Mi and the Dolor Scot t&ee denved Irani THE WKVREUTQ1S CLOSWQ SPOT RATES. Sam ntre m rauided b* tlw F.T. The FT wii 
not be puUshed on Fndav. April 5th. Exchange rates for Apri 5th wA appea In Sdunliv Apri 6th edocn EjuJvj ryu rales tar Thusday Aprl 40) will rot be 
pu&Mhed bur are mdolabta on Otvfc+9 0891 437001 


Taiwan (TS) 27.1850 

ThaSand (Bt) 252500 

t SDR rate per S tar Apr A EfctfaAn Bj 
irartet but are n^Asd by cureid Mart 
The FT wn rut be puMehed on Fnrtey. 
•d not be pubSitnd but are mHime 


-0.0026 762 - 770 12770 12762 

-0.0001 322 - 332 7.7325 7.7325 

+0.025 500 - 000 342000 34.0000 
+0.0002 309 - 359 3.1359 30903 

+0.46 420 - 500 107.630 107.090 
+0X01 310 - 320 2.5320 2-5300 

-0.0021 639-654 1.4654 1.4639 

- 000 - 000 262000 26.1000 

- 505 - 509 3.7509 3.7505 

+0.0009 043 • 053 1.4053 1.4029 

-0.0125 975 - 0 75 4.1075 40975 

- 000 - 100 

-0.046 770 - 930 272200 27.1770 
+0.01 400 - 600 252800 252400 
spends In ms Dofev SpM taUe shew only the 
rest rates. UK. Intend & ECU ora quoad n US 
r. April 3th. B n har yi rarea tar Apri 5di and app 
a en CCySne 0891 437001 


12785 -12 1282 

7.7334 -0.1 7.7352 

34275 -52 3428 


-1.7 12007 -1.9 
-0.1 7.7822 -04 



Open 

Sen price 

Change 

High 

Law 

Est. vd 

Open ire. 

Jun 

90+51 

90.tja 

+0.19 

90.69 

90.48 

12028 

36738 

Sep 

9051 

91. TO 

+0.19 

81.11 

90.90 

3094 

31122 

Dec 

90.98 

91.14 

+0.16 

91.15 

90.96 

1236 

15413 

Mar 

90.92 

91JT7 

+0.15 

91.07 

90.92 

332 

7589 


i MONTH EURO SWISS FRANC 1 


I (UFFE) SFrlm pomta oMOVta 


111 

i i ’t 


107.015 5.0 106.115 

22324 -0.4 25385 

1.4677 -22 14735 


3.7511 -0.1 3.7519 

1.4013 3-0 12953 

4.1313 -&4 4.1638 


-0.1 3.7552 -0.1 

2.7 1.3698 2.5 

-7.8 4.406 -74 



. 


Open 

Sea price 

Change 

High 

LOW 

Eat. vd 

Open Int. 

4.7 

136.0 

Jen 

98.30 

9853 

-006 

98.30 

96ft>0 

7439 

38957 

-12 

- 

Sep 

98.18 

98.13 

-0JD7 

96.18 

98L10 

1910 

13868 

-22 

- 

Dec 

97.89 

97.07 

-0.04 

97.89 

97.87 

500 

10334 

“ 


Mv 

97.55 

97.55 

-0j06 

97.59 

97.55 

156 

2909 


27205 -02 27245 

252487 -4.7 255525 
last three decanal places. Farm 
currency. «LP. Magoi nonwial > 
ear re Sjiuttey April Btn edtaon 


-0.9 

-4J& 26.435 -4.7 

rod rates as not iteadly ry+yri m bis 
ndcesAprA: Bare swage 19HM00. 
1 Eachange rates tar Ttandoy April 4th 


■ TIWEE KOMTH ECU FUTURES (LfFE) Ecu 1m points OM 00% 

Open Sett price Change High Low Est vo) Open int. 
Jun 95.48 96.48 +021 55.49 95.46 713 8383 

Sep 9548 95.46 95.47 85.44 33B 3466 

Dec 9527 9624 -0.03 9527 9523 47 2884 

Mar 9424 -021 

* UFFE hAum aba traded an APT 


CROSS^RATES'AND DERWATfVES 


■ TWEE MONTH EURODOLLAR (IMM) Sim paMs of 1003* 


EXCHANGE CROSS RATES 


EMS EUROPEAN CURRENCY UNIT RATES 


Apr 5 

BFr 

DKr 

FFr 

DM 

>£ 

L 

H 

NKr 

Ea 

Pta 

SKr 

SFr 

C 

CS 

S 

Y 

Ecu 

Belgium 

(BFrl 

100 

18.79 

16.58 

4.B68 

2.061 

5128 

5.437 

2106 

5012 

406.9 

21.80 

3323 

2.14? 

4.454 

3383 

3523 

2.615 

Denmark 

(DKr) 

53-22 

10 

8824 

2.589 

1.107 

2729 

2.893 

1151 

288.7 

2165 

11.60 

2.088 

1.143 

2.370 

1.747 

187.7 

1.382 

France 

(FFr) 

60.31 

11.33 

10 

2.334 

1255 

3092 

3.279 

12.70 

3023 

2454 

13.14 

2366 

1395 

2.688 

1.980 

212.8 

1.577 

Germany 

(DM) 

3056 

3882 

3/408 

1 

0.428 

1054 

1.117 

4.327 

103.0 

63.63 

4.479 

□306 

0441 

0.915 

0.675 

72.51 

0.538 

Ireland 

[IQ 

48.06 

9.031 

7.969 

1338 

1 

2464 

2.613 

10.12 

240.9 

195.6 

10/47 

1385 

1.032 

2.140 

1.578 

169.6 

1357 

itdy 

<U 

1.950 

0.36E 

0.323 

0095 

0041 

100. 

0.106 

0-41 1 

9.774 

7 936 

0.425 

0077 

0.042 

0.087 

0.064 

6.880 

0.051 

Netherlands 

(FI) 

18.38 

3.466 

3.050 

0.895 

0383 

943.1 

1 

3373 

92.18 

74 84 

4.009 

0.722 

0395 

0.819 

0.604 

64.89 

0.481 

Norway 

INKri 

4749 

8.924 

7.875 

2.311 

0988 

2435 

2-582 

10 

238.0 

1932 

1035 

1.863 

1.020 

2.115 

1.559 

167.6 

1242 

Portugal 

(Efll 

19.95 

3 748 

3308 

0J»71 

0.415 

1023 

1.085 

4201 

100. 

81.19 

4349 

0.783 

0.428 

0389 

0.655 

7039 

0522 

Spain 

IPta) 

24 58 

4.618 

4.075 

1.196 

0511 

1280 

1.336 

5.175 

123J 

100. 

5.356 

0364 

0328 

1.094 

0807 

8670 

0.643 

Sweden 

(SK0 

45.88 

8.822 

7.600 

2ft?33 

0.955 

2353 

2495 

9661 

230.0 

186.7 

10 

1.800 

0385 

2.043 

1.506 

161.9 

1300 

Switzerland 

(SFr) 

25.49 

4.760 

4.227 

1240 

0530 

1307 

1 -386 

5.387 

t27.8 

103.7 

5.556 

1 

0.547 

1.135 

0 837 

89.93 

0367 

UK 

<Q 

46.57 

8.751 

7.722 

2268 

0.969 

2388 

2.532 

950d 

233.4 

189.5 

10.15 

1.827 

1 

2.074 

1.529 

1643 

1318 

Canada 

(CS) 

22 45 

4.219 

3 723 

1.093 

0.467 

1151 

1221 

4 728 

112.5 

9137 

4.894 

0.681 

0.482 

1 

0.737 

7932 

0 587 

US 

CS) 

30.46 

5.723 

5.050 

1.482 

0634 

1562 

1.656 

6.413 

152.6 

123 9 

6638 

1.195 

0.654 

1356 

1 

107.5 

0.797 

Japan 

IY) 

28.34 

5326 

4 700 

1-379 

0590 

1453 

1.541 

5968 

142.1 

115.3 

6.178 

1.112 

0.609 

1362 

0.931 

100. 

0.741 

Ecu 


38.33 

7 185 

6 340 

1.860 

0.796 

1961 

2.079 

8051 

191.6 

155.6 

8333 

1.500 

0.821 

1.703 

1355 

134.9 

1 


Spain 162.493 
Netherlands 2.15214 
P o lg hi m 38.3960 


Austria 

flei ninny 

Portugal 

Donmarii 

France 

iraiand 


134383 

1.91007 

195.792 

728580 

640608 

0.792214 


NON BW4 MEVBSTS 
Greece 292.867 

Italy 210615 

UK 0786652 


Rate 

agamsiEcu 

Change 
on day 

%+Afrom. 
con. race 

% spread 
v weakest 

Dtv. 

tnd. 

158397 

-0.022 

-234 

530 

16 

2.12095 

+0.00021 

-145 

436 

11 

383827 

+00107 

-105 

3.84 

8 

133393 

+00038 

-0.74 

3.51 

5 

138711 

+000055 

-ooa 

345 

7 

195489 

♦0194 

-0.15 

2.00 

1 

7.32274 

+0.00231 

031 

233 

-3 

646222 

-000248 

038 

1.65 

-7 

0.813868 

-0000209 

2.75 

0.00 

-19 

30B3S3 

-0359 

539 

-241 


200032 

-2.16 

-503 

619 

_ 

0339420 

•0000220 

571 

-3.71 

- 


Open 

Sett price 

Change 

High 

Low 

Est. vd 

Open nt 

9437 

94.47 

-0.00 

9437 

94.44 

34359 

416317 

94.45 

9433 

+036 

94.43 

94.19 

36073 

344303 

9436 

93.96 

+O.70 

9433 

33.94 

65317 

321,367 


IIS TREASURY BEX FUTURES (IMM) Sim par 100% 


Jun 

95.03 

9405 

-0.10 

95.03 

94.93 

Sep 

9400 

94.70 

-0.10 

9400 

94.70 

Dec 

94.51 

94.48 

-038 

94.51 

9431 

Al Open Howl Sgg. ore lor previous <tav 




66 9.831 

62 3^14 

4 232 


■ BUROMARK OPTIONS (UFFE) DMlm pouts of 100% 


Ncraegun himur. jnd SvMbh Krone, por ID. Bcigun Franc, Van. Es-arte. Las , 


■ D-MARK FUTURES (IMM) DM 125.000 per DM 


■ JAPANESE YEN FUTURES (IMMj Yen 125 per Yen 100 


Ecu central ram set by the Brapoan Carnmastan. Currenoeo are re doscanding reMve strength. 
Per c ent a ge ctungos are tar Erac a poOttve chanae denotes a week currency. Dtaapaioa stroma the 
ratio benwiin two spnmta: the perpan og a d d arenoe behmeen the actual matai and Ecuoantral ram 
lor a currency, and the rneumum oenretted percentage davtaron ot die currency's martini rtfs tram its 
Ecu cere* <31 e. 

ft ?W32J Sterang and teflon Lira suspended tram BWt AtjuMmont cataUbaed by Ihe Ftm l d Times. 



Open 

Sen pne* 

Ctunge 

High 

Low 

ElL vd 

Open tat. 


Open 

Sell price 

Change 


Low 

EsL vd 

Open nt. 

Jun 

0.6776 

0 6774 

-OOM9 

0 6789 

0.6756 

8.558 

52.923 

Jun 

0.9451 

0.9387 

-0.0048 

03433 

0.3373 

9.671 

74.402 

Sep 

0.6826 

0.6812 

-O.OOflB 

0 6826 

0.6797 

46 

2.151 

Sep 

0 9498 

09502 

-0.0047 

0.0496 

09498 

137 

1.7B8 

Dec 

068K 

06851 

-0.0006 

0.6852 

0.6852 

3 

193 

Dec 

0.9650 

0.9617 

-0.0045 

0.8650 

09650 

51 

1.058 


■ SWISS FRANC FUTURES ilMMI SFr 125.000 per SFr 


■ STERLING FUTURES (RAM) 032.500 per E 


Jun 

OBJ 20 

08428 

-0.0015 

0 8455 

0 8405 

10.452 

28309 

Jun 

1 5242 

1.5206 

•0.0002 

1.5302 

Sep 

O04W 

0 8502 

-0 0015 

0 8500 

0 8500 

79 

621 

Sep 

1.5230 

1.5276 

+0 0002 

1.5300 

Drc 

- 

0 5579 

-0 0015 

- 

- 

2 

504 

Dec 

- 

1.5252 

+0.0002 

1.5220 


■ PHH-APSLPH1A SE C/3 OPTIONS 01250 (cents per pounefl 

Strtte CALLS I 

Price Apr May Jrai Apr 

1JS00 2-87 2.98 327 0.01 

1J10 1.92 220 2.65 0.02 

1-520 0.99 1.40 2.08 0.10 

1230 029 0.92 1.55 0.32 

1J40 0.01 0.52 1.12 1.02 

1-550 - 025 0.78 1.95 


Strike 

Wee 

Apr 

May 

CALLS - 
Jun 

Sep 

Apr 

PUTS 

May Jun 

Sep 

9875 

036 

0 09 

0.12 

0.16 

0.03 

0.06 0.09 

□21 

9700 

0.01 

032 

0.03 

0.06 

033 

034 035 

036 

9725 

0 

0 

0.01 

0.02 

0.47 

0.47 0 48 

0.57 

Est. «oi total. Cate 24 TJ Putt 15081. Previous day's open nt. Cate 330140 Pus J14S21 

■ EURO SWISS FRANC OPTIONS (UFFE) SFr 1m points d 100% 


«IW3 

Price 

Am 




Sap 

Dec 

Jun 

■■■ rwio 

S«P 

Dec 

MOO 

038 


029 

035 

035 

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0.38 

9825 

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0.14 

0.14 

0.13 

0.26 

0.52 

9850 

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0.44 

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Previous day's VOL Cdta 3.161 Pure 4JK3 . Pmv. day’s opan reu Cate 147476 Putt 166391 




LONDON MONEY RATES 

Apr 4 OvlT- r day 


■ THREE MONTH STERLING FUTURES (UFFE) £500.000 points of 100% 


Moitva* Storing 
S:nw*l CD; 
Trear-ur', B*s 

Banv Bdt 


Over- 

7 days 

One 

Thrw 

Slv 

One 


Open 

Sett price 

Change 

Ht^i 

Low 

Est. VQl 

Open tu 

rid* 

noiicv 

month 

rfkjnlhs 

months 

year 

Jun 

93.95 

93 96 

+0.01 

93.96 

93.94 

7306 

7B532 

6>« - 5 

d - S -’s 

6 - 5 T o 


6lj -b 

6,; - d>4 

Sep 

33.76 

93 76 

-a Or 

93.78 

93 75 

4404 

59488 



stl • s-;; 

6 - si; 

6iii ■ 6 

6 • 6>v 

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93.40 

93.40 

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93.41 

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55350 



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92 £6 

32.96 

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92.97 

92.94 

2234 

37521 

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Si ■ 5ii 

5 is ■ 55! 

57s - SiJ 
bt* ■ 6 

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Jun 92 61 92.61 -0.01 3261 B2.56 

Aba tretta 'in APT 411 Open mewl ftps, jre la previous dry 
■ SHORT S'lHIUHO OPTIONS (UFFE) C5OG.0OO points ol 100% 

822 

31006 


BASE LENDING RATES 


■ EUHOURA OPTIONS (UFFE) LlOOOm points of 100% 


UK cfcunng Bank b.me lendrep raw 4 pw cent from M,vch 5. 1W6 

Up to 1 1-3 3-6 

month month months 


Cens cl Ta« dcp. (TIOO.OOGi 2'j 5*j 5 5 J4 

■jrrr & tu+ onp under CrCO.CrOO oC'zpC Ocp-mta mltxao+n K* cash t',rc. 
kr.+ u+ndor rare cl oac-ajnl on Ac< 4 . S81Slpc ECCO fued rale Site E+oon Eoun. a . Mater up ,ai 
Sts _>* I9W Agreed roto (>+ pmad Mr X. iWKi to May 75 tm lic+Mnun H A m r a-*mnos 
rale rat penaa Mar t 19* to Mai /■). imc. Schemm IV 1 V 0. 133tr. Prunce Hproo Bft" Saw 4 Soa 
Man Aoril 1. 1396 


Stoke 

Pnce 

Jun 

— CALLS - 
Sep 

Dec 

Jun 

— PUTS - 
Sep 

Dec 

9375 

□26 

026 

026 

0.05 

025 

061 

0400 

0.09 

014 

0.17 

0.13 

0.38 

077 

942S 

0.02 

0.07 

an 

031 

0 56 

096 


Em. «J local. Calls 1T8G Fun 6J9. Preveus day's Open art- Ctth 113171 Puts 105659 


Adam S Company .... &00 

Afled Trust Bar* -.630 

AIBBaiR 600 

•Horey Ansbacher 600 

Bankol Baroda 600 

Banco BKnoVbxaya.- 600 

Bank ot Cyprus 6.0G 

Bankollretem 6.00 

Bar* d India 600 

Sank of Sectoral 600 

Bardqis Banh 600 

EH Bk ol Md East 600 

•Browi Shipley & Co Ltd .600 

QttantiNA 600 

Clydesdale Bark 6X0 

Hv CcHcperaiwe Bank. 600 

Couts&Co 600 

CrecHLyomato 600 

Cyprus Rapmar Bar* _600 


Duncan Lawrie 600 

Exoer Bar* Umked ... 725 
FtrsnsHS Gen Bank. .700 
•Hoberi Fleming A Co _600 

Gwbre* 8J00 

■Guinness Mahon 600 

Habfc Bank AG ZOrich BOO 

■ U e m broa Bar* 600 

Hertabia & Gen Inv Bk 600 

•HN Samuel 600 

GHoareACo 600 

Hongkong & ShanghaL 600 
Julan HoAje Bar* . .. 600 
•LeapoU Joseph S Sons 600 

UaydsBart: -_600 

Meghraj Bank LU 600 

Mdbnd Boric 600 

* Mount CredtOap 625 

NatWastnvnffler 600 

•Flea Brokers 600 


Fkiyal Bk ol Sootend ... BOO 
•Sreger 4 Frtedtander 600 
•SirHh & WBnten Sacs . 6 00 

TSB 600 

Urited Bar* ol Kuwait- 600 
Ui*y Trust Baric nc _ 600 

Western Trust _600 

WhuanayUricfaw — BOO 
YoricsHraBenk 600 


Strike 

Price 

Jun 

— CALLS - 
Sep 

Dec 

Jun 

PUTS - 

Sep 

Dec 

9060 

0/S1 

085 

1.00 

022 

0.25 

(L36 

9075 

0.27 

0.60 

0.83 

033 

0.33 

0/44 

9100 

0.17 

051 

0.68 

048 

0.41 

054 


Eat vox Mat. Cria 4S4S Puts 956 Preuaxs day^ open reL. CMa 20S45 Puts 10877 


• Members ol Londai 
Inveotmenl Banking 


* U rkifcig, i|, fc ^ 1 ll 1 


Ap5 £ 

CZBCb % 415553 -415841 
Hstoa? 220211 ■ 220360 

ton 4587.00 - 458650 

Itawft 0,4575 - 0.4584 

Patted 35618 - 35662 

RWSO 747334 ■ 747937 

UA£ 53134 - SOW 


FT GUIDE to WORLD CURRENCIES 


Z7.1B7Q ■ 27.1970 
144370 - 144.120 
3000.00 - 300000 
02993 - nFwf 
25920 - 25940 
488900 - 4832.00 
33725 - 15730 


The FT Guide to World Currencies 
table can be found on the Ma-hets 
page In Tuesday's edition. 


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Travel: A Caribbean 
island refuge for eccentric 
millionaires VIII, IX 


Sport: Varsity boat race: 
unsung heroes on the 
Tideway XI 


How To Spend Hr Kids' 
clothes that adults like to 
indulge in V 


Tr ■ -w . 


The miracle on breakfast radio 


P resenter: Good 

morning. With me 
this morning are 
four men. They are 
all authors, respon- 
sible for some of the best- 
known writing in all literature. 
Their work has been translated 
into virtually every language. 
And air four were invoked to 
guard the beds of Victorian 
children. They are Mask, Mat- 
thew, Luke and John. 

John, may I come to you first 
and start straight in with the 
most controversial aspect of 
your work? To put it starkly, 
. you stand accused of ferment- 
ing anti-Semitism. You seem 
never to pass np an opportu- 
nity to run down the Jews or 
to blame them for the death of 
Jesus Christ. People have 
suggested seriously that the 
roots of the Holocaust stretch 
back into the Gospel which 
you wrote. 

John: Very disturbing 
charges they are. But let me 


Philip Crowe beams up the evangelists for a talk show grilling on how they edited the good news 


put them in the context of 
when I was writing. I wrote my 
account a little later than the 
other three, when we’d had 
tfanp to absorb the cataclysmic * 
events in Jerusalem. The 
destruction of the City, and of 
the Temple, was shattering. 
The Jews, more than the 
Romans, were held responsible 
for the death of Jesus and 
Christians had a rough time 
from some of the Jews. . 

We thought that the destruc- 
tion of the Temple might be a 
judgment of God. 

Pr e senter: But a Jewish his- 
torian has estimated that the 
Romans killed or captured 
more than lm Jews at that 
time. If that’s God’s judgment, 
then it’s horrendous, a dread- 
ful revenge for the death of one 
man or for causing trouble to 
his followers. It’s out of all pro- 
portion. What kind of God 
would do that? 

John: 1 didn’t ever make any 
explicit connection between 


the death of Jesus and the 
destruction of Jerusalem by 
the Romans... 

Presenter. Maybe not, but 
it's implied. And Matthew, you 
make the connection explicit 
in some of the parables you 
record. What about the story of 
the marriage feast, where you 
ten us that the King was so 
angry with those who wouldn’t 
come that he sent his soldiers 
and destroyed them and burnt 
their city? Or the response 
which you tefl ns the Jews all 
. made when Pilate washed his 
hands - they all replied, his 
blood be an us and on our chil- 
dren. You seem to be blaming 
a whole race for the wrong 
done by a few. 

Matthew: Yes, it’s usually 
John who gets the blame for 
this, but the interpretation 
some of us put on the stories 
Jesus told was added in the 
light of what had happened to 
Jerusalem. At the time, it was 
a widespread understanding. 


and it was held by some Jews 
as well as by most Christians. 
But I make no excuses for it 
We were wrong. And if we'd 
known the use people would 
make of it Tm sure we would 
have written differently. 

John: Besides, we offered no 
encouragement to people, and 
particularly not to Christians, 
to persecute or to kill anyone. 

Presenter: But some of the 
sayings of Jesus are very 
severe, condemnation of the 
scribes and Pharisees as hypo- 
crites, and particularly all that 
talk about the fires of heC and 
eternal p unishm ent 

Lake: Jesus was at his most 
severe when be met up with 
self-righteousness or hypo- 
crisy. He’d probably have had 
something to say about the 
hypocrisy of today's tabloids... 

Presenter And The Daily 
Telegraph. 

Mark: I recorded those say- 
ings about hell in my account 
but people then knew what 


Jesus was talking about There 
were no civic amenity sites. 
People took their rubbish and 
threw it over the city walls 
into the fires in the Valley of 
Gehenna. They were always 
smouldering, never went out 
It was a way of saying that 
some people are good far noth- 
ing. But Jesus said nothing 
about everlasting punishment 
To use your own words, “What 
kind of God would do that?" 

John: And don’t forget those 
remarkable accounts of for- 
giveness. 

Presenter Well, one of the 
most remarkable is in your 
Gospel, but only in the margin 
or added at the end like an 
appendix. Why is that? Didn't 
you write it? 

John: You mean the story of 
the woman who was to be 
stoned for adultery. No, it 
didn't come from me. 

Luke: I wrote it. I had it 
almost straight from one of the 
people who were there, that’s 


where all the detail comes 
from. But some prudish monk 
left it out when he was copying 
my manuscript 

The bit about her being 
caught in adultery, in the very 
act probably fired his imagina- 
tion. The early church was no 
different from today. 

It made more of sexual 
wrongs than political sins, and 
this story was too lenient for 
them. When they did eventu- 
ally put it back into the gos- 
pels. after about 800 years, 
they added it to John’s account 
instead of mine. 

Presenter: You tell us that 
Jesus wrote something in the 
dust with his finger, but you 
don’t tell us what. 

Luke: He didn’t write any- 
thing. They’d used sticks to 
drive the woman towards him. 
She was considered unclean. 
That’s why she was to be put 
to death by stoning, so that no 
one would have to touch her. 
Jesus was so angry he just 


bent down and ran his finger 
thro ugh the dust 

When he could bring himself 
to speak, he said, ray quietly, 
“Let the one who is without 
sin throw the first stone". And 
when they’d all taken them- 
selves off - not surprisingly, it 
was the eldest who left first - 
he told the woman not to sin 

a gain. 

But he didn't condemn her. 

Presenter: And what would 
have happened to the man? If 
she was caught in the act... 

Luke: Nothing. That's what 
was so unjust about it Men 
could play the field, but if the 
wom an got caught she was put 
to death. Jesus loved women, 
he respected them, and he took 
terrible risks to improve their 
position in society. The idea 
that he was not the marrying 

Continued on Page II 
Philip Ckowe is a former prin- 
cipal and tutor of Sarvm and 
Wells Theological College. 



Perspectives: Poncho 
politics m the Andes 111 


Books: Hugh Dickinson 
on God versus evil-, 
through the. ages - XIV 


Bridge Chiw, Cwnenl _Xai 

f— -l.y,, n 

- • iv 

Food 4 Drink 

vi, vn 

Hour To Soond It 

V 


Porap*ctfvos 

Property 

a a 

XM, XVII 


Small B M alnwMwa . 

Sport 

Travel — . 

Weekend Investor . 


XI 

Via, IX 

.XXJ, XXII 


Y ou have heard, have 
you not, of Nong- 
qause, the celebrated 
seer of the Xhosa 
tribe? Hie lady, whose name is 
spelled as I have it, figures 
prominently in South African 
history. More than that the 
true story of her fetal proph- 
ecy may stir our brainboses 
this Easter Saturday morning. 

Nongqause started forseelng 
in 1856, when she was a young 
girl. If you want to picture her 
ai it you must imagine the 
click-sound, represented by 
the qa in her name. Strike the 
tongue against the mid-roof of 
the mouth, as you would to 
imitate a horse’s clop-clop. 
You can either say qa, or you 
cannot Do not try too hard. 

Ms Click went around telling 
everyone that on February 18 
1857 the whites would be 
driven into the sea by a great 
wind. Other miracles would 
occur. Fields would Spring up. 
ready to harvest Illness and 
old age would disappear. In 
short, the world would start 
anew, to the great advantage 
of the Xhosas. ■ 

Just one little matter had to 
be cleared away. It was neces- 


, i i' |V 


■n-yv;* 

n r 



Joe Rogaly 


We can profit from a prophet 


Thoughts in memory of Nongqause, seer of the Xhosa tribe 


sazy for her people to kill all 
the livestock they possessed. 
They should also destroy their 
grain and other fruits of the 
earth. She was believed. More 
than 200,000 head of cattle 
were slaughtered. The fields 
were razed. The Xhosas waited 
confidently for the payoff- 
As you will know, or may 
have guessed, Nongqause was 
wrong. The replacement stock 
she had said would trot in 
from the ocean shore did not 
appear. The sun did not rise 
blood-red. Dead chiefs did not 
walk again. It was a catastro- 
phe. In the first half of 1857 
some 70,000 of hertribespeople 
are thought to have perished 
of starvation, although sane 
may have fled to where they 
could beg for food. The rest of 
her life was a sad anti-climax. 


Our prophetess spent time 
on Robben Island and, in some 
danger if she appeared in pub- 
lic after her return, adopted 
the name of Victoria Regina. It 
was fitting. We were taught at 
school that the military power 
of the Xhosas, which rivalled 
that of the Zulus, was broken. 
Nothing beats the power of 
mass delusion. Nowadays it is 
magnified by the media. 

- You will have spotted the 
connection between my potted 
history and the British govern- 
ment's present embarrassment 

over how many million cows 
to slaughter if confidence is 
beef is to be restored. I do not, 
however, intend to dwell on 
this. My thoughts fie In 
another database, directly con- 
nected with fiie account 
rehearsed above. 


Today we delude ourselves 
about everything, because we 
know so little. We have less 
faith than Nongqause had in 
her vision, and only a little 
more understanding of how 
the world works. 

A year or so ago we were 
told that history had come to a 
full stop and for a fleeting sec- 
ond some of us accepted that 
absurd proposition. The 
accomplices and successors of 
such sound-bite notions fly 
past in ever-increasing 
swarms, driving us dizzy with 
con f usion. 

No wonder some of us 
blather on about a sense of 
anxiety in the developed 
world. As to the cause of all 
the angst - you name it, some 
successor to Nongqause has 
proposed it The devaluation of 


religious belief. The entry of 
women into the labour force. 
The birth control pill. The end 
of the traditional family. The 
loneliness of the solitary city- 
dweller. Multiculturalism, or 
its opposite, ethnic division. 
The erosion of trust. Technol- 
ogy. Science. The collapse of 
co mmunis m The weakening 
of traditional values. Hie high 
cost of social security. Popula- 
tion growth. Humanity’s 
steady, relentless, destruction 
of the planet 

In my trade I naturally 
receive missives on these and 
similar subjects every other 
day. A week or so ago I was at 
a conference organised by the 
Institute for Public Policy 
Research on the “risk society”. 

Anthony Giddens said that 
in times past people worried 


about what nature might do to 
them. Today we are concerned 
about what we might do to 
nature. Risks manufactured by 
new technology were experi- 
enced in most domains of 
human life. Science created 
uncertainty. The professor was 
brilliant 

This week I received a new 
book Tiie Politics of the Real 
World*. It postulates, not for 
the first time, that there is a 
connection between global 
environmental degradation, 
the declining quality of life in 
Britain and increasing interna- 
tional insecurity. The connec- 
tion is the assumption that 
economic growth, providing 
higher incomes, is the prin- 
cipal measure of pr ogress and 
the main goal of political 
endeavour. Market forces pro- 


vide the motive power. 

The publishers launched the 
volume concurrently with the 
establishment of “Real World", 
described as a new movement 
for change. It is backed by 33 
charities and pressure groups, 
including respectable names 
like the Save the Children 
Fund, Oxfem and Friends of 
the Earth. Most of the book's 
chapters contain something to 
chew on. 

To take one example close to 
my heart. Real Wortders want 
a “sustainable" economy. This 
might avert environmental 
disaster. There is a catch. Low 
growth, plus green policies 
would not guarantee annual 
increases in personal dispos- 
able income. The formula 
might, however, raise the qual- 
ity of life. 


The trouble is that, in 
remembrance of our Xhosa 
Victoria Regina, one has to 
add that the “Real World" 
approach might be too good to 
be true. It might not bring 
back the garden of Eden. It 
could be that the prevailing 
orthodoxy, which invokes the 
market at every opportunity, 
is the least worst option, just 
as democracy is the least 
desirable form of government 

aIT 


ers. We cannot be certain. We 
can only guess. 

1 suspect that the hard-world 
will prevail over the charities' 
aspirations fora while yet, and 
certainly past the millennium. 
Hard-worlders have a tough 
answer to every question. 
Crime? Lock them up. Pov- 
erty? A natural effect of eco- 
nomic dynamism. Global 
warming? The scientists are 
not sure. Tax? Confiscation. 
Jesus? Carbon-dating the 
closed tomb. 

There must be a better way. 
We just need a prophet to tell 
us what to destroy in order to 
find it 

* Earthscan, 120 Pcntonville 

Road, London N1 9JN. 






L B 


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PERSPECTIVES 


S pace flight sounds like a 
good way to take the 
weight off yonr feet Blast- 
ing off may be a bit nerve 
racking bat once yoa get into 
space you are practically free from 
the effects of gravity. Yon weigh 
between one-hundredth and a mil- 
lionth of what yon do on the 
ground. 

Bat microgravity has its down 
side. Gravity is extremely conve- 
nient It makes tools drop verti- 
cally and then stay where they are 
when we let go of them. We come 
to rely on this. In microgravity 
anything that is not held down just 
floats away. 

Even man done tasks that we do 
not think about on earth cao 
become difficult and messy in 
space. Gravity is the force that 
m akes stuff go down the toilet 
Ever since America's first astro- 
naut wet his pants, manned space 
flight has provided rich pickings 
Tor lavatory humorists and a chal- 
lenge for sanitary engineers 
looking for a lightweight substi- 
tute for gravitational attraction. 


The Nature of Things 


The ups and downs of gravity 

Scientists have been studying the way weightlessness affects astronauts. Andrew Derrington reports 


One of the Apollo missions was 
hampered by a severe and literally 
unattainable bout of vomiting 
and diarrhoea suffered by an astro- 
naut early in the mission. 

Weightlessness has another 
drawback: it does not last forever. 
The body gets used to weighing 
nothing. The heart, circulation, 
fluid balance, muscles and bones 
all change in ways that make it 
difficult to cope with gravity on 
return. 

Since the first space flight by the 
Russian Yuri Gagarin in 1961 sci- 
entists have been studying the way 
the body adapts to weightlessness. 
"Long-term adaptations are very 
important," says Thais Russomano 


of King's College London. "A mis- 
sion to Mars would be technically 
feasible if we could overcome the 
human factors." 

Russomano. a Brazilian who has 
been excited by space flight since 
she was six years old, came to 
King 's to study the way the heart 
and circulation adapt to weight- 
lessness. "Adaptation of the cardio- 
vascular system is really impor- 
tant because it occurs very rapidly 
so It can have a big effect even on 
very short missions." she says. 

The main effect of weightless- 
ness on the cardiovascular system 
is that fluid is no longer polled 
towards the feet by gravity. 
Instead it migrates towards the 


head and chest, where it accumu- 
lates in the tissues, causing 
enlargement of the heart, swelling 
of the face and nasal congestion 
(this is why shuttle astronauts 
sound as if they have head colds). 

The build-up of fluid In the 
upper body is counteracted by an 
increased output of urine, and a 
decreased fluid intake. The blood 
volume is reduced over three to 
five days. 

Once this adaptation has taken 
place, when the astronaut returns 
to earth and gravity starts pulling 
the blood back towards the feet, 
there is not enough blood to main- 
tain the circulation to the brain. 
Just standing op causes a racing 


pulse and may even make him or 
her faint 

It is not possible either to turn 
gravity off for any length of time 
on the earth's surface, or to turn it 
on in space. The longest period Of 
micrograrity that can be achieved 
without leaving the atmosphere is 
about 25 seconds, in an aircraft 
flying a parabolic loop so that the 
G forces of a vertical torn just 
counteract the earth's gravity. 
According to Russomano. this is 
long enough to show bow difficult 
emergency surgery is in micro- 
gravity (blood goes everywhere) 
bat nothing like long enough to 
study cardiovascular adaptation. 

Fortunately the cardiovascular 


effects of microgravity can be 
reproduced by simply lying down 
with the feet tilted slightly above 
the head. 

A heroic series of experiments in 
the former Soviet Union, in which 
volunteers were kept lying down 
for periods of up to 200 days, 
showed that a six degree head- 
down tilt gives the best simulation, 
and this is what is used in Rnsso- 
mnn n'a microgravtty experiments. 

Even six hours of head-down tilt 
causes a migration of fluid towards 
the bead, increased urine output 
and a reduction in the ability of 
the heart to cope with cha n g e s in 
body posture and in pressure 
inside the chest. 


When they were returned lo a 

near-vertical position (70 degree 
tilt) and they performed a valsalva 
manoeuvre - a l tempting to Torre 
air out of the lungs against a 
closed airway - most subjects 
either fainted or showed the initial 
signs of fainting, although none 
had done so before the six hours of 
simulated mlcrogravity. 

Russomano and her colleagues 
are now planning to lest how simu- 
lated microgravity affects the 
mechanics of breathing and of 
blood gas transfer in the lungs. 

But she leaves no doubt that, 
even with all Its inconveniences, 
she would rather do her work 
under the real microgravlty condi- 
tions of space night "At 32 I’ve 
probably missed my chance," she 
says regretfully, "but maybe If 
tbey paid more attention to the 
possibility of medical emergencies 
my MB might help me get 
selected." 

■ The author is professor of psyche 
logy at the Uzdoerdtu of Notting- 
ham. 



Lionel Crockett and his daughter Genny with their ergonomically correct garden tools Thaw HunpMos 

Minding Your Own Business 

A helping hand for 
troubled gardeners 

Clive Fewins meets a family business which aids the disabled 


Encounters / Kieran Cooke 

World where 
fairy tales 
come true 


W hen Lionel 
Crockett was 
in New Jersey 
on business a 
few years ago. 
the wife of his US sales agent, 
an arthritis sufferer, suggested 
he might design a range of gar- 
dening tools for people with 
weakened joints. 

For four years he had con- 
centrated on producing a range 
of scissors specially adapted 
for people with disabilities 
under the name Feta (Practi- 
cal, ergonomic therapeutic 
aids;. His self-opening scissors, 
with continuous long-loop plas- 
tic handles, had been selling in 
more than a dozen countries. 

When Genny, his daughter, 
joined him in 1991 they decided 
to search for a new product 
and it was the American trip 
that provided the key. “Dad 
has always been an ideas 
man." said Genny. 30. “When 
he came back from America we 
discussed the garden tools plan 
and he started making sam- 
ples." 

Crockett started from the 
premise that the way in which 
most people usually hold a 
one-handed garden tool. like a 
trowel or small fork, puts 
undue strain on the wrist and 
hand. A better working posi- 
tion is with the handle at right 
angles to the blade and the 
hand gripping it like a pistol. 

From this concept he devel- 
oped five hand tools - a trowel 
hand-held hoe. fork, weeder 
and cultivator. All have a han- 
dle rising vertically at right 
angles to the blade, and ail are 
aimed at able-bodied gardeners 
as well as people with disabili- 
ties because they put less 
strain on joints. 

The tools, all patented, were 
introduced last spring. This 
year they appear in the cata- 
logue of a leading gardening 
mail order supply company. 
“We believe we have found a 
gap in the market waiting to 
be filled, especially as we have 
such a high proportion of 
elderly and infirm in the popu- 
lation." said Crockett. 55, who 

started designing when he 
owned and ran a Southend- 
based company producing com- 
ponents for the electronics 
industry. 

When his partner became ill 
and had to retire in the mid- 
1980s Crockett gradually tired 
of running the business and 
eventually sold it in 1983. He 
immediately started designing 
again - this time working from 
home with Josephine, his wife 
- concentrating on the Peta 
range of scissors. 

They bought standard scis- 
sors from Sheffield manufac- 
turers and adapted them, using 
outworkers. Overseas sales, 
using agents, grew and in 1991 
Crockett tempted Genny away 
from her job os assistant to the 
head of a large London man- 
agement consultancy. She took 
over much of the day-to-day 
running of the business while 
her father concentrated on 
design and development. 

This enabled him to perfect 
long-handled toenail cutters, 
which rapidly became the best- 
selling line. The next stage was 
to move the business from the 
garage of the family home at 
Brentwood to the present head- 
quarters - a converted equip- 
ment store on a farm near a 
village T miles from Chelms- 
ford. They run it from there 


with the help of four part-time 
women helpers, one home- 
worker and a shared telephone 
and fax line. 

By 1993 - a year later - turn- 
over had risen to £189,000 and 
business was brisk. However, 
the Crocketts soon found that 
what Lionel Crockett calls “a 
cheap and nasty copy" of the 
toenail cutter had found its 
way on to the market. 

In spite of issuing writs and 
spending about £5.000 defend- 
ing their product, the Crock- 
etts decided against taking out 
a patent. The threat is now 
partly lifted, hut the price of 
the product had to be cut in 
order to keep it in the cata- 


logues of the leading mail 
order healthcare product sup- 
pliers in the UK. 

Since the early 1990s ail the 
scissor blades have been made 
either in Japan or Taiwan 
because the company could not 
find a British maker. 

“1 spent several days in Shef- 
field seeking a manufacturer, 
but no one seemed interested. 1 
was very annoyed. I would far 
rather have Peia England than 
Peta Taiwan stamped on our 
products." says Crockett 

A crisis at the end of last 
year, when the woman who 
had been handling Crockett's 
accounts for 25 years died sud- 
denly. meant a delay in com- 


pleting the 1995 accounts. How- 
ever. the signs are that last 
year will show a net profit of 
around 15 per cent on a turn- 
over of £275,000 - a great 
improvement on the 3 to 5 per 
cent of the two previous years, 
says Crockett 

“During those years we bad 
to invest very heavily- in the 
development and patenting 
here and in the US on the new 
range of garden tools," he said. 
“However, we have not had to 
borrow - we do not even have 
an overdraft facility." 

The new range of Peta Fist- 
Grip products is now complete, 
with the addition of an 
optional arm support - a rigid 


cuff that encircles the forearm 
and fits into the rear of the 
handles on the hand tools. Also 
new Is the pack of two 
clamp-on handles which can be 
attached at right angles to any 
normal long-handled tool to 
relieve stress on the wrist and 
ha gd - 

The Crocketts have scaled up 
their mail order operation to 
handle these higher value 
products, which they are also 
selling through distributors In 
Australia, Germany, the US 
and Japan. In addition they 
have doubled their UK adver- 
tising budget to £5,000. 

The metal parts of the gar- 
den tool range are made either 


in Japan or Taiwan but the 
products are completed in this 
country, by the Essex company 
that makes and fixes the plas- 
tic pistol-grip handles. 

"It is a neat solution because 
we do not want to get highly 
involved in production," says 
Crockett “It leaves Genny free 
to run the company and means 
that 1 can spend most of my 
time at home and stick largely 
to what I enjoy most - design- 
ing new products. We have sev- 
eral ideas in the pipeline." 

■ Peta (UK) Ltd, Mark’s Hall, 
Margaret Rodina, Chelmsford 
Essex. CM6 1QT. Tel: 01245- 
231811. 

Gardening. Page 5 


S tacey is an unlikely 
sort of character to 
bump into in an art gal- 
lery, unless he happens 
to be dressed in a balaclava, 
sporting a screwdriver in one 
hand and a torch in the other. 

Yet there he was in Dublin, 
face like a spring plum, a suit 
which even a colour-blind 
bookmaker would be embar- 
rassed to be seen in, one large 
hand resting on his chin as he 
peered studiously at a Titian. 

"Some of this stuff is not half 
bad," says Stacey. A pixie of a 
woman hi a large velvet hat 
purred at his side. “She has 
education," he says. “She’s 
opening my eyes. It's love I tell 
you." 

He gives a bloodshot wink in 
the direction of the hat and 
leans earward. "And for good 
measure she has plenty of 
dash. Loaded with it" (Eyes 
bulge, arms describe large 
amounts of currency.) “Estate 
in the country, homes,' a drive- 
way like the M25." 

Stacey belongs to the old- 
fashioned section of the crimi- 
nal class. The type of thief who 
appeared in the black and 
white films. A lovable scoun- 
drel It's a fair cop guv,” he 
would have said as the man 
from the yard laid a black 
gloved band on his shoulder. 

The last I had seen of Stacey 
was selling teddy bears and 
Christmas trees on a bright 
June day outside Hammer- 
smith tube station in London a 
few years back. 

Stacey had dropped out of 
sight owing to some compul- 
sory time served at Her Maj- 
esty’s pleasure. "Just a spot of 
porridge at the holiday camp." 
is how he cheerfully described 
it 

As we strolled from the Can- 
aletto to the Murillo be told 
the tale of his latest contre- 
temps with the law. The hat 
hugged Stacey’6 arm at the 
more touching moments of the 
story. 

It started Innocently enough. 
Through some computerised 
oversight in a particular 
branch of government Stacey 
suddenly found his account 
blessed with a bonus of £47,000. 

After recovering from a near 
coronary Stacey pondered Ms 
options. "Now, of course, I 
could have rung up the boys at 
the department and pointed 
out the gross error that had 
been committed and ask them 
to please come and take their 
filthy pile of lucre back. 

“Or I could just keep mum. 
Now you know me, I don’t ilka 
any fuss." (Shoulders are 
shrugged innocently, eyes go 
skyward while a heavily nico- 
tined finger is placed alongside 
nose.) 

Stacey has always believed 
in the merits of education. The 
money came in handy to real- 


ise his ambitions for his son. 
Reginald. Armed with his com- 
puterised windfall. Stacey sent 
Reginald to one of England's 
top public schools. 

The years go by. “Reginald is 
coming on nicely, talking posh 
and doing wed at his sums and 
the rest," says Stacey. "I had 
some bad luck on the horses. 
Then the school bills started 
mounting up. It was like pour- 
ing concrete down some great 
bole." (Stacey throws up his 
arms in horror. A Rodin sculp- 
ture has a lucky escape.) 

“1 begin to think it’s better to 
just get Reggie some elocution 
lessons and use a handy little 
photocopier to forge a few ‘O' 
and 'A' certificates. I go to the 
school principal and tell him 
how circumstances are getting M 
a little difficult * 

“ ‘Exactly what business 
might you be in. Mr Stacey?' 
he says to me over the sherry. 
“Well". I, said. Tm in the 

I ‘I was nabbed 
with enough 
dodgy duvets 
round my neck 
to unfreeze 
the Alps 7 

wet fish and veg business 
myself." 

Stacey describes how the 
principal picks an unseen 
speck of dust off his gown, 
then gazes for an extended 
period ont of the stained glass 
study window, and says: "The 
only thing I ran suggest is that 
you sell more fish Mr Stacey.” 

Stacey, shaken but unbowed, 
took another course. Just one 
more little job. In its essentials 
this involved the processing of 
a large quantity of duvets of 
dubious providence. 

A certain party reneged on 
the deal "1 was nabbed with 
enough dodgy duvets round M 
my neck to unfreeze the Alps,” 
says Stacey. “That and a few 
other things taken into consid- 
eration was enough to put me 
away for a tidy stretch." 

We have stopped in front of a 
Gainsborough. The hat reads 
the explanatory notes. 

In the world of Stacey, fairy 
tales come true. The hat, bis 
solicitor's clerk, came to his 
rescue. “She stole my heart 
and opened her cheque book 
Paid for my Reggie those last 
couple of years. Now he’s 
thinking about working in a 
German bank. What a turn 
up." 

The hat says it was all worth 
it Stacey takes a critical look 
at the Gainsborough. He does 
not approve of the dogs. “Now 
me, 1 much prefer grey- 
hounds." 


The miracle on breakfast radio 


Continued from Page l 


sort, put about by one of your 
bishops... 

Presenter: They’re not my 
bishops. 

Luke:. . . is just absurd. 

Presenter Now that you've 
mentioned the bishops, what 
do you think of today's 
Church? 

AU: Not a lot. 

Matthew: No. that's not 
really fair. But I doubt whether 
Jesus ever intended to found 
the kind of institution the 
Church has become today, all 
that fancy dress, and end- 


Choss No 1122: 1 FM3 KxM 2 Bh5 
Kxh5 3 Bd4 KhB 4 ««. m . . - Kt2 
2 Rg 4 Kfl 3 Rg2 Kol 4 Adi. No 
f t2i (from last week): i Oafl. if p4 
2 Qh1+ Kg5 3 at* KB 4 Q05. If 
Kg< 2 QO+ Kh3 3 d5 and 4 Og2. 


less meetings and so much 
time and money spent on its 
own life. It hides wbat matters. 

Presenter: Which is? 

Luke: The same as it’s 
always been - love God and 
love jour neighbour as your- 
self. That’s it. 

Matthew: You could put the 
same thing in a different way. 
It's to believe and trust in God. 
to worship and share in com- 
munion with other people, and 
to work for justice. 

Presenter Well. I'd like to 
come to the heart of Christian 
belief in God - the resurrec- 
tion. Mark, the ending of your 
account puzzles me. You end 
with the women trembling and 
astouished at the resurrection, 
and your last word is a con- 


junction. It's such a dreadful 
anti-climax, and bad grammar! 

Mark: It's not such an anti- 
climax. Fear and astonishment 
are an appropriate response to 
an event as shattering as the 
resurrection. But Tm not such 
a bad writer that 1 would have 
ended a sentence with a con- 
junction. let alone a book, and 
in fact I didn't. I ended with an 
account of a meeting between 
Peter and Jesus, a simple, 
quite moving account of Jesus 
sorting out the mess Peter had 
made when he denied him. It's 
disappointing that it got lost, 
although John ends his gospel 
with a similar story. 

Presenter: Matthew, you 
mention rocks splitting and 
graves opening ami other 


strange happenings at the time 
of the resurrection which the 
other three leave out. 

Matthew. That's just a way 
of saying that here is an act of 
God. I simply added a few more 
things that people wouldn’t be 
able to explain, to emphasise 
that the resurrection was a 
supernatural act 

Presenter So you'd agree 
with the former Bishop of Dur- 
ham when he said that the res- 
urrection was not just a con- 
juring trick with bones. 

Matthew. Well, that's a mar- 
vellous phrase, what I suppose 
you'd call a soundbite. And it’s 
true. The resurrection didn't 
just magically restore Jesus to 
the same state he'd been in 
before he died. He was utterly 


changed, translated to a new 
kind of life. It is, in the literal 
sense of the wortl a mystery. 

Presenter Then what do you 
make of the comment of the 
present Bishop of Durham, 
that if there bad been a camera 
there at the time, it would 
have recorded that something 
happened, that the resurrec- 
tion was photograpbable? 

John: Frankly, I think that’s 
just ridiculous, j don't think 
any of us has the first idea of 
what happened. 

Mark: And we've no idea of 
what happened to the body. 
The most I could record was 
that Jesus died, and was bur- 
ied, and that the women went 
to the tomb and found that he 
wasn’t there. 


Luke: The most that can be 
proved, as a matter of history, 
is that the followers of Jesus 
were transformed, from a 
group of frightened, defeated 
men and women into coura- 
geous and confident people, 
and they said it was because 
God had raised Jesus from the 
dead. But one of the major dif- 
ferences between our time and 
yours is that you can now 
explain and control so much. 
We couldn’t Most people then 
believed in God, or some deity, 
who was in charge of all the 
forces they couldn't manage. 

Presenter So are you saying 
that belief no longer matters. 

John: No. Tm not - but then, 
to borrow a phrase, I would 
say that wouldn't I. You seem 


to believe now that the only 
real ity is that which you can 
understand and control - or 
that you soon will be able to 
understand and control. That 
distorts the truth about life 
just as badly as ignorance and 
superstition did in our day. We 
did at least retain a sense of 
wonder, a sense of mystery 
whereas you have reduced life 
to technology. 

Matthew? And once you lose 
a sense of mystery, or turn 
God into another control mech- 
anism who can be manipulated 
If you say the right thing s 
your sense of what is good and 
bad also begins to erode - so 
you have people arguing that 
Blur is as good as Beethoven. 

Presenter: I’ve never sub- 


scribed to that, indeed I've 
resisted that kind of cultural 
relativism. 

John: And that's because art, 
music, literature, painting, 
even great television, invites 
wonder. It takes us ont of our- 
selves into what is true and 
good and mysterious In life. 
The churches ought to do the 
same thing, but they have been 
afflicted, like everything else, 
by the same reductionist ten- 
dency - reducing God andlan^ 
guage and goodness to wha^ 
people can manage, and the 
resurrection to an event which 
could be photographed and 
published in the press and for- 
gotten next day... 

Presenter. Sony to Interrupt 
you in full flow, hut we're out 
of time. No time even to men- 
tion the publications of ntf 
guests, but they are well 
enough known. Good morning- 



•I 

i 

i 

i 


; / 



weekjend ft ni 








wit.-r.in f n„k e 

where 
tales 
: true 




FIN ANCTAL TIMES WEEKEND APRIL 6 /APRU. 7 /APR 1 L S 1996 


PERSPECTIVES 


Poncho 



in the 
Andes 

Stephen Fidler goes on an eccentric 
tour with Alberto Fujimori, the popular 
and pragmatic president of Peru 


P resident Alberto Fuji- 
mori flew in from. r.-ftwa 
on his new jet' and 
stepped down on the tar- 
mac at Juliaca airport, 
high in the Peruvian Andes. As 
Usual in the mountains, he was 
wearing a poncho and knitted hat, 
traditional Andean Indian garb. 

This looks incongruous at first 
but after a while one gets used to it 
Fujimori, after all, shares Asian 
ancestry with the people of Andes. 
His parents arrived as poor fishing 
people from Japan in the 1930s; mil- 
lennia before, the Indians’ forefa- 
thers crossed the Bering Straits 
from Asia. 

A framer university rector who 
emerged from nowhere to win the 
1990 presidential elections, Fujimori 
subdued Peru's twin scourges of the 
1980s: terrorism and inflation. It 
won him immense popularity and, 
after last April’s elections, a second 
term in office until the year 2000. 

He elicits powerful feelings. His 
critics, many among the intellec- 
tuals of f.ima whose influence has 
waned since he took over, worry 
about the way he has concentrated 
power in his own hands. He is, says 
one, "isolated, opaque, erratic, 
excessively preoccupied with short- 
term popularity and Intolerant". 

An agricultural economist under- 
going a very public divorce, Fuji- 
mori acknowledges no debt to any 
book, philosophy, historical figure 
or economic model It is rule, he 
says, by pragmatism. 

He also seems to be on a perma- 
nent election campaign. He travels 
ceaselessly, cutting ribbons, inaugu- 
rating schools, giving speeches and 
shaking hands; 

Using his new Boeing 737-500 or 
military helicopters and transport 
aircraft, 'be 'travels as if he had an 
aversion to lama and its Christmas 
cake presidential palace. It is, he 
says, part of his mission to solve 
Peru's problems. 


Peru has tens of thousands of 
problems but Fujimori has his note- 
book. Tve got this little book," he 
. told us. “What do I -see in it? I see 
they're putting corrugated iron 
roofs on schools in the hi ghlands. 
when tOe roofs are Ideal. Fve cor- 
rected this already. Every school in 
the highlands: tile roofs.” 

We had asked the president for an 
interview and were invited on a trip 
to the Andes. Fujimori regularly 
takes foreign journalists on expedi- 
tions, but one has to be carefuL One 
CNN repo rte r was embarrassed by' 
her appearance dancing with the 
president on the evening news bul- 
letins in I-iraa 

Fujimori sat in the front seat of a 
four-wheel drive, placing me and an 
FT colleague behind him and the 
driver. Further aft, suffering an 
acute lack of legroom, were Peru's 
minister of eneagy and mines and 
his technical chief. “My ministers 
take a back seat," laughed the presi- 
dent. whose autocratic style does 
not allow fra; rivals. We all laughed. 
including the minister. 

In the next v ehicl e were the M- 
cas, the female television interview- 
ers who follow the president. 
Behind them were an assortment of 
television cameramen, officials, 
journalists and military men. 

“What's the name of that restau- 
rant I like here?” asked the presi- 
dent of his aide-de-camp. Ten min- 
utes later. 20 of us dropped in 
unannounced on El Trqjillano, pro- 
prietor Ricardo Honores, generating 
15 minutes of almost total chaos. 
Fujimori disappeared, eventually 
summoning the FT into the kitchen, 
where he was stirr in g pots and gen- ., 
orally distributing. advice About 
food preparation. , “The president; afiy 
the kitchen,” he told us. *' t -*' — - 

A night-time' journey by road_ 
from Juliaca to Puno, on the shores 
of Lake. Titicaca, would have been • 
too risky a few years ago. Now ter- 
rorism is under control, the 45-rain- 


WULft'L! S U ULL TC. 


f l <~r : 


?■' ; 


.. ,’.“EA 



*My mi ni ste r s lake a bade seat*: Alberto Fujimori, ceaselessly on an election campaign In Pam 


ute trip is once again possible. 

The conversation on the way was 
a mixture of the banal and the 
extraordinary. We asked about how 
the government might deal with 
Peru's discredited judicial system, 
over which he caused an interna- 
tional outcry in 1992 when he shut 
it and the Congress down. He pon- 
dered before responding: “Close it" 

We talked about the university in 
Puno, once a stronghold for the 
Shining Path terrorist movement, 
and which we were to visit the fol- 
lowing day. “Everything at the uni- 
versi ty is fairly quiet now,” ven- 
tured the drive:. “ Totally quiet,” 
corrected the head of state. 

Eventually. sometime before mid- 
night; we boarded a rather ancient 
lalinclr • on Labe J’Iticaca, the 
world's highest navigable lake. A 
dozen or so of us. and the president, 
sought refuge in the cabin from the 
pouring rain. He ordered his aide- 
de-camp to bring out the scotch 
whisky, which we sat around drink- 


ing out of plastic cups, except the 
president who had a glass with a 
little white napkin around the base. 

While in Puno, he had persuaded 
a local beauty queen to crane along. 
Not long into the journey, she 
looked preoccupied and asked for a 
mobile phone. “My mother doesn’t 
know where I am,” she explained. 

We were heading for the Uros 
islands, a group of man-made settle- 
ments floating on the lake. The 
fragile villages are built on reeds 
that are constantly sinking. Every 
week, the villagers who eke a mea- 
gre living from fishing and tourism 
must harvest more reeds to keep 
the islands aflnaL 

The village was pitch black and 
asleep when the president of the 
republic and his entourage arrived. 
With the rain still falling, we 
trooped soggily to our quarters, 
three straw huts with two beds and 
rudimentary bathrooms. Built for 
tourists, they were pledged by 
Fujimori on one of his three 


previous visits to the Uros. 

The president madp certain be did 
not end up spending the night with 
his cabinet colleague: “The Mats 
crane with me,” he said presiden- 
tially, disappearing into his hut 
with three television interviewers. 1 
shared quarters with the minister 
and his aide, who generously 
insisted he sleep on a mattress on 
the floor. 

We arose two hours before the 
president. The minister kept return- 
ing to his bed for a nap, and jump- 
ing bolt upright and running out- 
side when it seemed Fujimori might 
emerge. After breakfast. Fujimori 
presented the islanders with 42 
solar panels, bringing electricity to 
the islands for the first thne. 

The president told the Mats - 
they were never called anything 
else - that he wanted to be inter- 
viewed about family planning. The 
big issue in Peru was privatisation 
but he told them: “I don’t want to 
talk about privatisation till Friday.” 


The Mats always accompany the 
president on his travels, at home or 
on his 60 trips abroad. It is a gruel- 
ling schedule, following the leader 
as he moves from rainforest, to 
coastal desert, to cold mountains. 

Fujimori himself lias grown 
accustomed to altitude, no longer 
needing the oxygen he used to take 
surreptitiously to sustain him. 
Some of the Mats suffer headaches 
and n ^wa 

They may receive a presidential 
call any time - one calls him 
"Pnari”. Their interviewing style is 
unaggressive. foil of questions such 
as, “Mr President, what is your cur- 
rent message about family plan- 
ning?". Thar relationship is amus- 
ing to watch, though .its effect is 
that Fujimori dominates the news 
broadcasts, and thereby virtually 
controls political debate. 

In the hours that followed, Fuji- 
mori helped to row himself back to 
Puno. named a boat, spoke at the 
university, lunched with local nota- 


bles. and joined a troupe of street 
dancers, before inaugurating the 
airport terminal building. All the 
time he soaked up adulation, wav- 
ing. shaking hands and plunging 
into crowds, a nightmare for his 
bodyguards. “We want to be ruled 
by Japanese,” shouted one Aymara 
woman. Hundreds of people shouted 
“ Chinilo" - Little Chinaman - as 
we passed. 

On all of this. Fujimori thrives. 
He seems to love these trappings of 
power so much it is hard to see him 
voluntarily relinquishing them. 
Most Peruvians think he will 
change the constitution (for a sec- 
ond time) and run for a third term. 

His critics fear he will go on until 
he fails and that, given his domina- 
tion of the country, that will be bad 
news for Peru. Says political scien- 
tist. Francisco Sagastt “Fujimori is 
tragic in the Greek sense of the 
word. The characteristics that make 
him successful conspire against 
him." 




P eople who know their 
way around 
Birmingham get to 
recognise small red 
trap doors an man}' of its 
bridges. These are an 
indication that the bridge 
passes over a canal; the red 
door is there to allow firemen 
to pass their hoses through 
and pump up water. 

There are a lot of red doors 
in Birmingham, because there 
are a lot of canals. The city 
owed much of its early 
industrial growth to its 
position at the junction of 
rap^ifi feeding in from all 
directions of the Midlands. 

Today, that is a mixed 
legacy. Go to Digbeth, a short 
walk to the south-east of the 
city centre, and you will see 
the classic run-down urban 
canal scene. Dingy, decaying 
brick braidings lining the 
canalside, rubbish in the canal 
and floating on the surface. 
Factories, alive and dead. 


Life on the canal is looking up 

David Lascelles discovers derelict areas of Birmingham city centre are being transformed 


railway viaducts - it looks 
very depressing: 

But look closer, and the 
history is still visible. A tall 
angular red brick building 
overlooking the canal junction 
has some fine period features: 
it is the did Proof House built 
to test ammunition. two 
centuries ago. Nearby, a wide 
roof reaches out over the 
canal , supported by cast iron 
rigggirai columns: the Warwick 
Bar where tolls were collected 
from passing canal traffic. 
Further along, a large 
warehouse looms over the 
water. Peering inside, one sees 
that it has already been 
converted into modern offices. 

Digbeth is an area 
earmarked by the city council 


and British Waterways for 
revival BW, a state-owned 
company which gets a 
£50m-a-year subsidy to run the 
country's canals, ba g already 
spent money to restore foe 
bridges and towpaths. The next 
step will be to entice 
investment to restore the 
neighbourhood's heritage. 

The possibilities awaiting 
Digbeth are visible in other 
parts erf Birmingham where a 

variety of initiatives have 
transformed stretches of nana> 
from Industrial wastelands 
into areas where people are 
pleased to live and work. 

To the east of Digbeth. 

' another desolate area of canal 
was taken over by the city 
council’s Heartlands 


Development Corporation for 
new housing. What was once a 
slum area is now a 
cheerful-looking community of 
1.000 houses clustered round 
the canal banks - Bordesley 
Village- A new bridge, 
modelled on the fine arching 
cast iron bridges of yore, 
connects the houses to a new 
shopping centre which is 
taking shape on the other side. 

“The canal was a vital part 
of the concept,” said Jim 
Beeston, chief executive of the 
corporation. “People want 
canalside sites.” This advance 
from the days when canals 
were shunned as insalubrious 
has reopened opportunities to 
live near the city centre, 
something that has not 


generally been possible since 
slam dwellers were moved out 
to suburban council estates. 

To the north of Bordesley, 
foe corporation is trying to 
redevelop the area round a 
picturesque set of locks and 
bridges at Aston. The 
atmosphere there is more 
industrial British Gas bag a 
large terminal with gas 
holders, and the locks 
themselves give it a 
businesslike air. But a hotel 
has already been built and the 
corporation is trying to lure in 
industrial occupants. The 
beautification includes 
cladding a large modem 
concrete bridge in more 
appropriate red brick. 

Stewart Stacey, chairman of 


Birmingham’s planning 
committee, describes the 
canals as “miles of 
opportunity". His showpiece is 
the area round the Gas Street 
Basin, once a derelict site at 
the heart of the city, now a 
striking redevelopment with a 
strong period atmosphere 
which has become a draw for 
the city and its visitors. 

The canalside site includes 
Bi rmingham 's new S ymph ony 
Hall and dozens of restaurants, 
shops and pubs. Across the 
canal the Brindleyplace 
development will offer a 
National Sea Lite Centre, 
alongside offices shops and 
bousing. 

In the surrounding stretches 
of Mniil, the old industrial 


sites have been restored and 
reopened for leisure pursuits. 
Something of the atmosphere 
of the early canals has been 
recaptured, and the project 
won an important 
international award last year, 
competing with other large 
waterside redevelopments in 
places like Baltimore. 

The key to generating the 
new investment was the work 
done by BW to dredge and 
clean foe canals, which were 
thick with rubbish and 
contaminants, accumulated 
over two centuries. Once the 
water was cleaned up, it was 
stocked with fish. Suddenly 
people realised it could be a 
pleasant place to visit 

A samflrvr regeneration bas 


been taking place in nearby 
Coventry, where the canal 
basin dose to the city centre 
was redeveloped last year for 
leisure and offices. The 5-mile 
link between foe basin and the 
main canal network to the 
north is also being smartened 
up. “This was one of foe worst 
areas in the dty," says Duncan 
Sutherland, director of city 
centre development. “Now, we 
see foe canal as foe economic 
regenerator of the whole area.” 

These schemes are part of a 
wider programme at BW to use 
ranqfe as foe basis for urban 
revival Bernard Henderson, 
the chairman of BW. says: 
“Canals are a vital element in 
foe loog-term sustainable 
regeneration of most of 
Britain's major cities and 
towns. BW’s policy is to work 
in partnership with local 
authorities and the private 
sector to secure grants that 
will help fund projects to 
benefit local communities." 


1 




I ■■ 





* 



Shakespeare’s giant jigsaw 

The greatest challenges are still to come in reconstructing The Globe, says Clive Fewins 

thought wise not to start detailed 


I n a huge hangar at the former 
cruise missile base at Green- 
ham Common, near Newbury, 
in Berkshire, carpenters are 
working on the last part of the 
giant wooden jigsaw that is the 
reconstructed Shakespeare’s Globe 
theatre on London's South Bank. 

The size of the huge oak timbers 
needed for the tallest posts, the two 
exterior staircases, modelled on a 
former royal hunting lodge in 
Epping Forest, the tyring house 
(backstage area) and the roof over 
this area and the stage -presented a 
problem for master carpenter Peter 
McCurdy and his team. 

They ran out of space at their 
workshop, a bam complex at Stan- 
ford Dingey near Reading, where 
foe rest of the structure was cre- 
ated. The hangar, which used to 
bouse Fl-11 fighter-bombers, is big 
enough to take two full-size recon- 
structed Globe theatres. Neverthe- 
less it is almost foil of fresh-sawn 
English oak for foe remaining tim- 
berwork and flooring of foe theatre, 
winch win eventually have a capac- 
ity of 1,400 seated and standing. 

Thousands of meticulously hand- 
cut joints will hold the structure 
together. “Ihe vast majority of foe 
estimated 2*000 joints are unique to 
one another," said McCurdy. 45. 
“Many of the joints are of foe same 
type but. just like foe original struc- 
ture, every mortice is cut for its 
own tenon.” 


Achieving this has been very 
complex. Each of the huge “frames” 
of oak that farm the 20-sided struc- 
ture, Shakespeare’s wooden 0, is 
scribed, cut and referenced at the 
McCurdy workshops or the Green- 
ham Common hangar. Then the 
individual frames are assembled to 
make sure everything fits together, 
disassembled and transported to foe 
riverbank at Southwark 

This process has gone an since 
1992. the year after McCurdy and 
company were appointed specialist 
builders of the main auditorium. 

Gradually foe three-floored struc- 
ture, with its jettied (overhanging) 
round galleries, has risen to 
form its now familiar thatch-capped 
profile on the South Bank, dwarfed 
by the neighbouring Bankside 
Power Station, 

In August and September 1995 
The Globe ran a workshop season. 
The first full-length production will 
run for three weeks starting in the 
last week of August this year. 

But for McCurdy the greatest 
challenge is still to come. While it 
was possible to build up a picture of 
what the wain structure of the orig- 
inal Globe looked iflte from archae- 
ology and contemporary reference, 
there is virtually no evidence to 
show what the stage structure and 
tyring house behind it and the areas 
above looked like. 

For that reason - apart from 
financial constraints - it was 


work on the tyring house unto the 
resident company, under artistic 
director Mark Rylance, bad 
assessed the merits erf the tempo- 
rary stage. 

Last summer the actors found 
that the 33ft distance between the 
two large temporary columns on 
the stage that will eventually sup- 
port the huge oak roof was too 
wide, ft meant foe pillars were too 
near the edges of foe stage, restrict- 

I It meant the 
pillars were 
too near 
the stage, 
restricting the 
actors 7 access 

fog the actors’ access to the stage. 

The tyring house mid structure 
above this and the stage had to be 
redesigned to allow for a 27ft 6fo 
gap between the pillars. This in 
turn maans a cantilever (overhang) 
of about 8ft on each side of foe two 
huge oak columns that support the 
structure. An oak tree was found - 
part of a stand near Hereford 
planted after foe Battle of Trafalgar 
- capable of producing a beam 44ft 
long and of sufficient girth to do the 

/ 


job. “Unlike much of foe rest of The 
Globe we have no historical prece- 
dent fra designing this , as we have 
no known reference for a cantilever 
of this size," said McCurdy. 

He is familiar with the design of 
most of the timber-framed historic 
buildings in Britain, and has been 
looking at the design of market 
halls with medieval roofs and foe 
tie-beam roof at Abbey Dore, Her- 
efordshire. which dates from 1620. 

Discussions over foe tyring bouse 
roof continue. “We are faced with 
not so much an engineering prob- 
lem as one of historical accuracy." 
said McCurdy. “We must solve it in 
a way that has historical credibility 
and does not undermine foe histori- 
cal methodology and the integrity 
of the rest of the building. 

“Jon Greenfield and I are working 
through one or two ideas we have 
developed to see if they can be 
made to work and if they are histor- 
ically justifiable. We expect to be 
working again on foe main part of 
foe structure by the early summer." 

It is known that there was a sim- 
ple trap, used far raising and lower- 
ing stage machinery, and also a 
painted area - foe “heavens" - that 
formed the ceding 23ft above the 
stage. But beyond that McCurdy 
thinks the room above foe stage 
was a simple structure, and that it 
was probably used for storage. 

“With no buildings to copy and 
no library with copies of drawings 


from 1599 it is a question of piecing 
together bits and pieces from every- 
where." McCurdy said. 

“I call it a conjectural and not an 
authentic Globe. But the irony is 
that, being a few hundred yards 
from foe original site it is probably 
in a better place." 

One concession to modern fire 
and safety demands is that there 
will be two more oak staircases. 
unseen by foe audience, each in a 
hidden comer of the tyring house, 
on each side of the stage. 

There is also a fire sprinkler sys- 
tem installed in the thatch. This 
was needed to to obtain planning 
permission for the first thatched 
roof over a timber structure in Lon- 
don since foe Great Fire of 1666. 

“We feel matters of public safety 
are one of the legitimate areas of 
compromise,” McCurdy said. 

“After all. bearing in mind that 
building has been in progress on 
foe theatre since 1993 and on foe 
site for nine years, we do not want 
the reconstructed Globe to suffer 
the fate of the first one, when in 
1613 a spark from a cannon durin g- a 
performance of Henry VIE ignited 
the thatched roof and the whole 
building burned down.” 

■ Shakespeare's Globe, Bear Gar- 
dens. Bankside, London SEj 9EB 
Teh 0171-620 0202. 

m McCurdy and Co. Manor Farm. 
Stanford Dmgley, Reading Berks 
RG7 6LS. Teh 01739-744866. 






) M 

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W WEEKEND FT 


FINANCIAL TIMES WEEKEND APRIL 6/APRIL 7/APRIL S I W6 


FASHION 





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■^‘••■".’.i*'</ ;: : ; V;-. : | 






Black zlp-up raincoat, £335, by Ramowear. This wotrid make a good aRemative to 
Prada's Mack nylon raincoat - versions are available everywhere from M&sto 
Benetton. High-tech fabric makes it strictly for modernists. From a selection at 
Joseph, 26 Sloane Street, London SWl. (Stockist Inquiries: 017t-B284774J 



An April 


- M 




\ 1 / 

t ¥ 




Pink pearicsed RVC raincoat, G32S by Aquascutum, 100 Regent Street, London W1. 
(Stockist Inquiries: 0800-282 9223.) This Mgh-shine raincoat combines quality and 
function with a sharp injection of style. K la double-breasted and a good length, but 
it to cut a fraction on the Ug side so looks best cinched at the waist ■ 


shower of 






revamped 


P: •• ••: J 
V •■■•••• s 


raincoats 


I ■ \ 

tfc \ 


m A 


Things have moved on from Prada’s 
black nylon mac, says Karen Wheeler 


vv r 

\ \ 


L ooking at the latest crop 
of high-tech, super-stylish 
raincoats, it is hard to 
believe that the bumble 
mac once stood fast 
against the demands of fashion. It 
was required to be waterproof, 
windproof and practical - but fash- 
ion never entered the equation. 

How times change. Ever since 
designers such as Donna Karan 
derided to revamp the raincoat - 
even suggesting that it could be 
glamorous enough to be worn out at 
night - the stalwart of the British 
spring has become a hot fashion 
item. And where once the very 
word raincoat meant a classic beige 
trench Hasting a lifetime), now 
styles change like the weather. 


The greatest sea change in the 
past two seasons has been in 
length. The ankle-flapping trench- 
coat made famous by Marlene Die- 
trich and Katharine Hepburn has 
been eclipsed by a sportier, 
three-quarter length style suited to 
dashing around town. And while 
the traditional mac was pale-col- 
oured and made from stiff, starchy 
cotton, the latest styles come in a 
wondrous selection of colours (from 
peartised pastels to acid brights) 
and feel-good fabrics. 

Evan the most traditional of rain- 
coat-makers have adopted more 
adventurous styling. Burberry has 
given its coats a new lease of life by 
introducing shorter styles in hot, 
citrus colours - lemon yellow. 


-■ V' - \ 

\ - «v 


Lima green, unified A-One raincoat ki treated nylon, £440, by Georges Recti, from 181-182 Sloane Street, London SWl. (Stockist 
Inquiries: 0171-235 334a) This looks very good on and hangs beautlfuHy at the back, ft comes in ■ great fabric (although the 
Erne green might data) and has dear Perspex buttons. Optional belt DM^nrnniUoi 


flame orange, cherry red and lime 
green. Aquascutum, meanwhile, hay 
overhauled the image of both its 
Regent Street store in central Lon- 
don, with modem interior decor, 
and its range - with raincoats in 
pearlised and satin effect fabrics. 

“We decided that colour, lighter 
fabrics and proportions were the 
key to a younger clientele," says 


Aquascutum chief executive Janies 
Pow. The average age of the Aqna- 
scutmn customer has dropped from 
50 to 35, 65 per cent of the range is 
now fashion led, and sales have 
increased by 40 per cent "The latest 
fabrics, particularly from Japan, are 
very scientific and can actually 
retain heat from the body daring 
the day," says Pow. “Micro-fibres 


have also moved an, with peach- 
skin fabrics becoming sharper and 
crisper." 

The big thing this season, though, 
is the high-shine raincoat. Satin- 
effect nylons and plastic-treated cot- 
tons are two of the most popular 
materials, combined with simple, 
minimalist styling fin- a futuristic 
look. That means buttons, epau- 


lettes and pockets kept to a mini- 
mum or, in some cases, dispensed 
with altogether. 

So, how to go about choosing a 
raincoat? At present, there are two 
distinct shapes to choose between. 
The first is the cropped trench or 
flared A-line which can he worn 
either loose or cinched at the waist 
This style works wonderfully with 
summer's narrow capri pants and 
short straight skirts. 

The newer shape is a neat sin- 
gle-breasted, dustcoat style which is 
reminiscent of the 1950s. Cut 
straight and dose to the body, it 
looks very chic in a Parisian way - 
it begs to be worn with a little ban- 
danna at the neck, capri pants and 
ballet shoes. But some raincoats are 
cut so narrowly that they do not 
allow for extra layers underneath 
and, because the styling is ultra- 
simple, the fabric has to be of very 
good quality. 

Whichever shape you choose, 
flared or straight, it is essential to 
check out the rear view as some 
raincoats can hang rather oddly at 
the back. 

Those looking for something a hit 
different should head for Joseph 
and check out the fast-selling 
designs by Ramowear. a French 
label. Few will have heard of it, but 
this is definitely a name to watch. 
Fusing style with function, this 
maker offers a varied selection of 
good-looking raincoats. Much of the 
appeal lies in the superb quality of 
the high-tech fabrics and, although 
these coats average about £300, they 
are forward enough in fashion to 
survive several seasons. 

The template for many of these 
raincoats is, of course, the ubiqui- 
tous black nylon Prada mac which 
was seized upon several years ago 
as a must-have item by the fashion 


pack. This spring, Marks and Spen- 
cer and Benetton both have ver- 
sions at affordable prices. Bene- 
tton has done it in khaki nylon as 
well. 

The raincoats shown here have 
been chosen for their cut. styling 
and quality of fabric. While ideally 
a proper raincoat should be 100 per 
cent waterproof, with specially 
treated seams so that even the 
stitch holes do not let in water, sev- 
eral Of the lightweight s umm er 
macs featured are. fine in a shower 
but are not designed to withstand 
torrential downpours. 

The high street is awash with 
fashionable coats. Favourites 
include Agngs B's lime green 
trenchcoat in pure silk: the white 
PVC belted mac (£79.99} by Oasis, 
which is short enough to double as 
a jacket and sure to be a hit with 
the trendy; and Ramowear ’s white, 
safari-style raincoat (£299) in a won- 
derfully tactile, high-tech fabric. 

Impractical though it might seem, 
white is a fashionable choice for 
raincoats just now. It looks very 
modem over stark black but also 
works with this season's bright cit- 
rus colours. 

One of the best-value versions of 
the narrow, dress coat style comes 
from the Liberty own-label collec- 
tion (£120) in navy satinlsed nylon. 
John Rocha offers a similarly sim- 
ple style in waxed linen, while Rac- 
ing Green has a lightweight, single 
breasted cotton showercoat (£89) in 
admiral blue, bright red or 
stone. 

Another good high street buy is 
Jigsaw's classic three-quarter 
length, fly-fronted style (£135). In a 
peach-effect fabric, this features no 
unnecessary detail and has the 
added advantage that it is machine 
washable. 







te&s 


% ®§ 


□ Far left Black and white fly-front 
gingham raincoat, £395 by 
Burberry, 185 Regent Street, 

London W1. (Stockist inquiries: 
0171-734 4080.) This raincoat has 
an elegant, 1950a feel thanks to its 
swingy cut and roll-back cuffs. It is 
a good length - just on the knee - 
and is generously cut so it could 
just as easfly be worn over severed 
woolly layers as over a smart suit 




V 








□ Near left: Yellow, single- 
breasted Bodmin cotton raincoat, 
£375, by Burberry, a fun raincoat 
which would brighten up the 
rainiest day. Functional enough for 
long country walks, but worn over 
black it would also make quite a 
fashion statement In town. The 
Bodmin - a three-quarter length, 
fly-front raincoat with optional belt 
- is Burberry's best-sefBng raincoat 




jmi 




. 




□ Near right: Gingham raincoat, 
£69, from Next Directory. 
(Customer Services: 0116-284 
9424.) Stark and functional in ns 
styling, this single-breasted, 
lightweight summer mac is very 
good value and one of the best 
high street buys. Not suitable for 
torrential downpours but a good 
option for wearing round town 










□ Far right Navy blue short nylon 
trench coat, £395, by Margaret 

HoweN, 29 Beauchamp Place, 

London SW3 (inquiries: 0171-584 
2462^. A very useful adefiflon to an 
executive wardrobe and MgMy 
covetabie, thanks to its luxurious; 
satin-feel fabric. Classic styfing and 
colour makes this an investment 
with a shetiMHe longer than one 
season 




/ / 



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esc:-- 



FINANCIAL TIMES WEEKEN D APRIL 6/APRIL 7/APRIL 8 ,996 


WEEKEND FT 


t-igy 

s— - *■ -a».- 


Kids' clothes 

that adults like 

cwT^r ^■ an ^P a J ei Jts will queue up to spoil the younger 
generation with these goodies, says Luda van der Post 

W hen my chil- 
dren were 
small, cloth- 
ing for kids 
tended tn fen 


HOWTO SPEND IT 



TSSfa 


W bea my chil- 
dren were 
small, cloth- 
ing for kids 
tended to fen 
into two distinct categories- 
school shoes and uniforms, and 
doll but sensible sweaters and 
everyday clothes (bought 
largely from Peter Jones); and 
then there were party clothes. 

It was party clothes that 
seemed to inspire British 
designers to amazin g flights of 
fancy - immaculately smocked 
organdie dresses, Little Lard 
Fauntieroy silk blouses and 
velvet knickerbockers, Liberty 
print summer dresses . . . 

They were all beautifully 
made, rooted in tradition and 
hideously expensive, and based 
on the patently preposterous 
notion that all potential cus- 
tomers lived in palaces or 
ancestral manor ’hnnggg 
When it came to sturdier 
clothing for every day the 
places to call on were few and 
far between. 

These days all has nhangnri 
Temptation to spoil the smalt 
set is everywhere. It is now 
possible to buy enchanting 
clothes for children for day as 
well as party wear. 

Quite apart from the arrival 
of Gap Kids and the enlarge- 
ment of the Marks and Spencer 
range, there are now many 
smaller designers who sell 
their unique versions of child- 
hood gear by mail Many of 
them specialise in the child- 
hood version of what might be 
called “special occasion" 
clothes - the sorts of thing 
that grandmothers or godmoth- 
ers Ml for in a soppy moment 
or that could be worn to a wed- 
ding or a birthday party - but 
a few offer their own more 
individual vision of clothing 
for everyday. 

Tartine et Chocolate should 
perhaps be the doting grand- 
mother's first part of call In 
fact, Tartine et Chocolate's 
range is designed by a doting 
grandmother herself - Cather- 
ine Painvin, a French woman 
who has turned -her collection 
of children's clothing and 
accessories intoa business-that 


§®f\M 




pSr# 

mr 



An enchanting floral dress, £1239, from Adams' CMdranawear, 470477 Oxford Street, London W1. For other stockists or inquries tat: 0900-330040 


Striped T-shirts (E10-E12) and danim Bermudas (015} from mini Bodan 





turns over mare than £iOGm a 
year. •< - 

There is one shop in London 
- at 66 South Molton Street - 
but there is also a mail order 
catalogue (visit the shop or 
telephone 0171-629 7233 for a 
copy). Here are sweet-collared, 
puff-sleeved dresses, candy- 
striped pinafore dresses, ging- 
ham dungarees, embroidered 
sweaters - all enchanting but 
none of it cheap. Prices start at 
£60 for a dress. 

little Dragons of 23 Walton 
Street, London SW3, has a 
small collection of what seems 
like Impossibly beautiful doth- 


■dreamy white voile dress, 
which -would be perfect brides- 
maid wear, is £59, and an 
immaculate pale blue linen 
blazer for small boys is £89. 
But there are some mare prac- 
tical items as well - a gfa gham 
pinafore and strong striped 
rugby shirts. The clothing is 
available from the shop or by 
mail order (tet 0171-589 3795). 

Mouse dotliing is a small 
business specialising in hand- 
knitted sweaters, each of 
which Is made to order. It has 
a small mail order leaflet with 
colour- photographs of its 
suggests designs from which 









-A- ■ 




Sw eater s made to measure from Mouse Clothing 


ing - not to be worn 'When* 1 • customers may choose colours, 
eating chocolate mousse. * A ^siz&'anddtaotiik. 


The designs are enchant ing 
- creamy collared “Eton" 
sweaters, seed stitched navy 
wool jackets with brass but- 
tons, indigo or stripey crew- 
necked sweaters. The sweaters 
are knitted by hand In 
England, Scotland or Ireland 
and are made from the best 
wools, so these are what could 
be called “special occasion” 
sweaters. Prices start from 


£2650. Brochure available from 
Mouse Clothing, 51 Black Lion 
Lane, London W6 9BG. Tel: 
0181-563 0958. 

Fans of Johnny Boden’s cata- 
logue will be delighted to hear 
that there is now a mini Boden 
version that caters for chil dren 
from birth until 8. Here there 
is lots of sturdy practical wear 
at reasonable prices - red 
striped pedal pushers at £12, 


denim pinafores at £22, charm- 
ing denim Bermudas at £15, 
sweet red-checked rompers at 
£30. It is a good catalogue to 
look for sturdy holidaywear 
(swimsuits and robes. T-shirts 
and shorts) as well as for the 
prettier dresses that every 
small girl needs to wear from 
time to time. 

Particularly enchanting are 
the sailor dress, all crisp navy 


and white (£34) and the 
smocked dresses (£44). Designs 
have been the responsibility of 
Kate Barton. She left a career 
at Vogne and Laura Ashley to 
found the General Clothing 
Company which became a lead- 
ing supplier of children’s cloth- 
ing. A copy of the brochure can 
be had from Mini Boden, 4 


A s from Easter, my gar- 
den is programmed to 
rise from the dead. It 
needs a helping band. 
The first seven years of its lift* 
haw been unforgiving. 

Since 1988, winters have 
been dry, springs dry and sum- 
mers even drier. In six years 
out of seven, at least two sea- 
sons have been abnormally 
severe. All the while, the great 
and the supposedly good have 
been preaching the virtues of 
natural forces, of leaving life to 
find its level and not interfer- 
ing with a nannying hand. 

At a stroke, as they used to 
say in the 1970s, I have 
attacked both problems at 
once. My garden will now be 
facing drought with a new 
political confidence. 

to the US, France, Australia 
or South Africa, no such confi- 
dence has been needed. The 
arts of irrigation have been 
taken to levels which Britons 
never considered. 

> Houses automatically come 
with artificial arrosage and an 
Australian gardener looked at 
me with genuine surprise, and 
possibly a touch of hope, when 
1 told her last year that I had 
been married all summer to 
nothing better than a hos epipe . 

We spray water during work- 
ing hours from rain-waves and 
amateur sprinklers, most of 
which evaporates before it pen- 


Gardening /Robin Lane Fox 


Tory wets run riot in my dry zones 


etrates the ground. They ran Court Show, the sun glared 
systems at the touch of a but- down unpityingly as Browning 


ton which dampens the- soil 
throughout the -night and 
leaves you believing that a 
miracle has happened during 
the dark hours. 

Until recently, the automatic 
watering of gardens in Britain 
has been confined to a few 
high-risk nurseries or even 
fewer millionaires. 

Perhaps the climate is 
warming, although the one 
promising cloud on the horizon 
are predictions of a summer 
even hotter than 1995. Dis- 
tressed by drought, I and my 
gardening brothers have inde- 
pendently fastened on Jeremy 
Browning of Precise Irrigation, 
a business which exhibits at 
big flower shows. 

Browning, 40, knows about 
dry weather. He began work as 
a tobacco farmer in Africa and 
took up the installation of arti- 
ficial watering for agriculture. 
Since 1991, he has laid out 
schemes for Gulf Air in Bah- 
rain and an Arab prince in Sur- 
rey. 

At last year's Hampton 


drew -^diagram to illustrate 
the : onion-shaped effect of 
water when spreading side- 
ways. f recognised a fellow- 
madman with an interest in 
mother nature and, this week, 
he and the team have been set- 
ting up the vicarage garden to 
cope with' the next round erf 
drought 

There are three main 
systems on offer. If you have 
an adequate flow of water, you 
can run micro-sprinklers in 
your lawn, borders and nurs- 
ery-beds of a single backbone 
of hose. Ton can judge if the 

flow is sufficiently -zapxd by 
seeing how many litres you 
can run from a tap into. a 
bucket in the course of a 
minute. 

Any number over 22 will 
give you a chance of your own 
sp rinkl er system. Thames 
Water manages a pathetic min- 
imum of nine to the taps of my 
vicarage, no donbt because 
their own leaking pipe has 
been losing most of the supply 
under the nearby graveyard. 


- ' This poor flow contrasts with 
the rapid run in my Oxford 
College. There, as you would 
expect, the academic pressure 
is much more intense and we 
have been able to install a frill 
micro-sprinkler system to save 
water and rescue the border. 

If your pressure is low, you 
have an alternative which adds 
to the cost You can' install a 
tank and a pump to- increase 
the flow, allowing you to water 
your lawns by barely visible 
sprinkler patterns. The extra 
pressure wfll cost you about 
£1.000 to achieve and you 
-should probably allow at least 
wxxy for a full, computerised 
system, capable of watering an 
acre or more erf garden. 

Obviously, the price varies 
according to the amount of 
flower bed, but a starting fig- 
ure of £3,000 is a realistic mini- 
mum for complete automation. 

k 

I certainly wfll not pay £3,000 
or more for watering and, 
thanks to Thames ‘Water's 


dse Irrigation has directed me 
to dripper-pipe instead. Its 
black surface is broken up by 
dripper-fittings at every 30cm. 
It can be concealed by a light 
mulch and the hope is that the 
water will ooze sideways 
through the soil by capillary 
action. Less water is used, and 
on the expert projection, I 
would not be using more than 
£5 a week extra if we ever 
come to be metered.’ 

My 24 flower beds are now 
festooned with lengths of drip- 
per-pipe, spaced 2ft apart The 
beds resemble Barts Hospital 
m its heyday and are certainly 
no less crowded.' Hie caring, 
however, is left to a central 
computer, programmed to set 
off each of the six zones in 
sequence as soon as the next 
drought begins. 

The whole system is exerting 
and slightly alarming, but I 
recommend any keen gardener 
to take the plunge after the 
agonies of the past years. 

My system is also a model of 


the herbaceous bonier. Prior The system, however, needs 
for the shrubbery, Gilmour for ^ a commanderin-chief whose 
the roses and Raison far the ^ code-name can subsume the 


delphiniums. 

When intervention Is needed 
in the cause of justice and 
defence of the weak., I will 
press the zone which they 
codename and have the double 
pleasure of putting the horti- 
cultural and political record to 
rights. 


lesser wets under its umbrella. 
1 have fought hard, and per- 
haps the Easter season has 
helped, but it seems to me that 
the one proper contender is 
Run cie who has therefore been 
voted into position. 

On sandy Cotswold soil, even 
a Greek dripper-pipe is some- 


don NW1Q 6RE. Tel: 0181-964 
2662. 

Far those who still like to try 
before they buy, Adams is a 
name to look out for. It has 317 
childrenswear stores through- 
out Britain and delivers great 
desi gn at great value - the fab- 
rics may not be the finest but 
who cares when the prices are 
good and the clothes are^oan 
outgrown? ‘ . . ~ . Z 


thing of a compromise. How- 
ever. it must be better than 
last year's non-shower and I 
may yet see Rodgersias thriv- 
ing in what was once the dry 
shade of my sycamores. Pre- 
cise Irrigation has done a job 
which needs the closest consid- 
eration by fellow-gardeners in 
the home counties who are 
equally distressed by the turn 
in England’s weather. Perhaps 
it will mark the garden's resur- 
rection, under the zone-name 
of an ex-archbishop for its 
believing atheist's installer. 

■ Precise Irrigation, The Ware- 
house, Raiding Road, Wantage, 
Oxon OXU 8HP. Tel 01235- 
76376a 




inability, I have ohly two political correctness. The drip- 
options left one is porous, or ■ per pipe is made in Greece, 






V 




K 


66 Did you see how much Christie’s got for that 
pink diamond ring at their last jewellery auction?” 

“Amazmg.-wasn’t it - just goes to show that one ought 
to be having a very sharp Wok through the jewellery box 
to see if there’s something they could sen in their next sale.” 

“1 suppose more people have realised how much better it is 
to sell jewellery at auction; the more buyers 

there are the higher the prices go.” 

“Mmm. I might take Aunt Maude’s bow 
brooch in for them to have a look at.” 

- “Why don’t you? After all, it won’t cost you 
anything, valuations are free after all. 

Closing date for Christie* 19 June sale of Important Jewellery is 20 April. 
Contact David Warren on (0171) 389 2380 . 



leaky pipe, the catchword now- 
adays among keen gardeners. 
The other is dripper ‘pipe, bet- 
ter known to Mediterranean 
farmers. 

I have steered clear of drip- 
per systems which have a 
do-it-yourself bravado to them. 
Those of yon who still send 
Chris tmas cards and, sympathy 
to my self-built swimming pool 
of eight years back will under- 
stand why. 

Leaky pipe is fashionable 
and it might seem as if your 
water authority has hundreds 
of miles of it, waiting for a new 
home. However, it has three 
disadvantages: it is more 
expensive than dripper pipe; 
the holes which leak down its 
length are easily choked up 
when you are gardening 
around than; and if the water . 
authority ever improves its 
pressure, the pipe is likely to 
split 

After careful thought, Pre- 


which befits the first ancient 
Greek historian to own one in 
this country. My central Euro- 
pean network of Greek drips Is 
now zoned into areas of impec- 
cable wetness. 

Modem controls must have a 
simply named command sys- 
tem. I am advised that each 
zone of the garden should have 
its own code name. Girlfriends 
have been suggested, but that 
depends if you have six of 
them whose names you want 
to contemplate In hot weather 
for the rest of your life. As a 
public spirited fellow. I have 
opted for politics instead. 

As the high priests of market 
forces seem increasingly dotty, 
I mil show historians the way 
by naming my garden's zones 
after the most prominent, 
heroic Tory wets. They may 
feel that they fell victim to the 
farce of the moment but they 
are now supreme in four main 
sections of my garden: Pym for 




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ABOVE 

An eiMO* Jiaami hat bun* 



ABOVE.- 

Am jmk dvnwnrf raff 

Sold in Lenitt Jcr £84fi00 


CHRISTIES 


CLARETS 

VINTAGE TOIM S WANTED 

if’ \ iiiiL’im; Tminvr psiccs. I I.VJMhDl.A IJ" 
(. onlac! Patrick "V\ ilkinson 
T el: (M7I-2D7 1945 Fii\: 01 7 ( 284 2785 


Nano — 


AdOresE 


WILKINSON VINTNERS LTD 

Flna Wine Merchants, Constantine Rd London NW3 2LN 


Postcode.. Telephone muwn 

l am specifically bnomtstod In Offices □ Factories Q Bespoke sites n 

«***• •»twn to Tyri. A Ufoirf Da.* lap mast Corporation, Scatawpad Houaa. HawtaaWa BialwtH Park. 
NmmL — Ha upon Tma ME* TYL. 


1 






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WEEKEND FT 


FINANCIAL TIMES WEEKEND APRIL 6/APRIL 7/APRIL 8 1996 


FOOD AND DRINK 


N ow where have we got 
to? Ah yes. Chardonnay. 
every wine drinker's 
familiar friend, and 
every winemaker's passport to 
international recognition. 

As styles in the middle ground 
become increasingly sophisticated, 
and top white burgundies and 
their nearest rivals are ever more 
robustly priced. Chardomania con- 
tinues to claim new victims in the 
most unlikely places. 

Nicolas Catena, who owns a sig- 
nificant proportion of Argentina's 
better winemaking capacity, has 
already shown that Argentina can 
produce unexpectedly fine Char- 
dotway for such a hot climate. He 
had the bright idea of hiring Calif- 
ornia winemaker Paul Hobbs. 

The new, 1994 vintage from Cate- 
na's Agrelo vineyard reaches new 
heights. The British importer. 
Bibendum of London NWl, sells it 
at £9. although Fullers wine shops 
sell it for £7.99 and The Wine Soci- 
ety of Stevenage list it at £8. 
Hobbs' less concentrated Alamos 
Ridge Chardonnay at £5 from all 
three stockists is also extremely 
respectable for the money. 

Now the chains and supennar- 


Wine 


Chips, planks and new barrels 


Jancis Robinson on the latest ways of making Chardonnay even more glamorous 


kets are muscling in on Argentine 
Chardonnay, most remarkably in 
the form of Santa Julia Chardon- 
nay 1995 at £3.99 from Waitrose. 
Acids are kept high in a wine made 

from pergola- trained grapes grown 
in a virtual desert, but the result is 
far from vapid. This is a lively, 
full-bodied, very slightly salty, 
prickly wine that is amazing for its 
provenance. 

A much more familiar style of 
Chardonnay comes an hoar's flight 
away across the Andes in Chile. It 
is heartening to see the vast North 
American spirits conglomerate 
Seagram take the trouble to import 
Casa Porta Chardonnay 1994 Cacha- 
poal. from one of Chile's newish 
small estates operating outside the 
clutches of the handful of domi- 
nant wine companies. 

At £4.99 from Oddbins (another 


Seagram benevolence) this well- 
balanced wine has been given pol- 
ish thanks to the small proportion 
that was fomented in small oak 
barrels and aged on the resulting 
lees. Barrel fermentation and lees 
stirring is what every winemaker 
tries to persuade his accountant 
that his Chardonnay needs nowa- 
days. Fermenting white grapes, 
particularly Chardonnay, In small 
barrels produces a pale, complex- 
flavoured, and particularly 

smoothly textured wine. 

The process of fermenting fairly 
rough and ready grape juice in a 
new oak barrel encourages all the 
potentially rasping elements (and 
many pigments) in a wine to drop 
out of it, while prolonged contact 
with yeast and lees tends to form 
fuller, livelier, more persistent fla- 
vours. And keeping any wine in a 


barrel for a time encourages the 
most natural sort of aeration and 
clarification possible. 

Penfolds Organic Chardon- 
nay/Sauvignon Blanc is a good 
example - a lovely dense-flavoured 
wine, presumably thanks to its 
pare vttl cultural milieu In Clare 
Valley, sans agrochemicals, bat 
with a beautiful delicacy thanks to 
its fermentation in new French and 
American oak barrels. 

The 1993 is £6.49 at Victoria 
Wine Cellars while most of the 
likes of Davisons, Majestic, Safe- 
way and Somerfield have moved on 
to the 1994 or even the 1995 at 
£6.99. Incidentally, from the 1994 
vintage, when John Gumma: was 
still feeding his daughter beefbur- 
gers, this wtne has been vegan. 

But new barrels add an absolute 
minimum of a pound a bottle to 


production costs. Hence the 
increasing importance of the oak 
chip, small fragments of oak 
suspended, teabag style in tanks to 
infuse wines with an oaky flavour. 

Oceans of less expensive Austra- 
lian whites bear the slightly sweet, 
toasty, dusty hallmarks of an 

encounter with Quercus frogmen- 
tus. Some of the cheaper “oaked” 
Spanish wines of both colours posi- 
tively reek of vanilla thanfcK to 
over-chipping. But chipped wines 
can torn into oily or bitter wines. 

One increasingly popular way of 
splitting the difference between a 
quick but aU-too-sbort-lived oaky 
fix and prolonged natural barrel 
maturation is planking, literally 
suspending planks of well-seasoned 
oak in the wine. 

One very convincing example, 
carefully described as having been 


“aged with new French oak , is 
Cordillera Estate Casablanca Char 
donnay 1995 at jnsi £4.49 from 
Green alls’ Wine Cellar/Berkeley 
Wines, Great Northern Wines of 
Leeds. Cote d’Or Wines of Ealing. 
Great Western Wines of Bath, and 
Davys wtne bars in London. Made 
by Thierry Yillard at Santa End- 
liana in Chile, it has textbook fla- 
vours of French oak and lees con- 
tact What it lacks is that lovely 
delicate texture associated with 
barrel fermentation - the hallmark 
of fine white burgundy. 

Thresher /Wine Rack/Bottoms Up 
has a parcel of Chahlis Vieilles 
vignes 1994 at £9.99. Remember 
real Chablis? Try this intriguingiy 
mealy, leesy example. 

Daniel Deface is a fine producer 
and just the sort we would like to 
see more of in our chains, please. 


Cave Cra Class* of London SEl 
(0171-378 8579) has Jean-Panl 
Drain's dense, youthful and con- 
vincing Grand Cm Chahlis Les 
Clos 1991 at £165 a dozen (phis £13 
duty and VAT) which may well 
outlast Colin Deleger's sinewy 
Chassagne-Moutrachet Chenevottes 
1993 at £195. 

For oaky, smoky, lemony white 
burgundy that should develop well 
but also give current pleasure, 
a mint Bonfils’ Chassagne-Mon- 
trachet CaiUerets 1993 Is £295 from 
Cave Cra Classd. 

Finally, a Chardonnay that has 
no need to speak its grape name 
for Its place name is apparently 
worth £2.353 for six bottles, or 
£392.11 a bottle: Le Montrachet 
1993 from the Domaine de la 
Romanic Conti via UK agents Car- 
ney & Barrow of London ECI, who 
ominously describe 1993 burgundy 
as “a collectors’ vintage". 

Total production of DRC Mon- 
trachet available to the world's 
most profligate wine collectors was 
fewer than 300 cases, so Corneys 
have been allocating rather than 
sellin g their share. The 1978 went 
for more than £500 a bottle at 
Christie's recently. 

























Is 















.vP-'-rT: 




-feoSuS* 


Forget Babe: just think about the sausages 


Giles MacDonogh goes to watch the killing of his 
pig in southern France - a salutary reminder 
of the hard realities of animal slaughter 


W hat follows is 
not for the 
squeamish. 
About a year 
ago. I con- 
ducted a small business trans- 
action in the unlikely setting 
of Angelina’s tearooms in the 
rue du Rivoli in Paris. 

Over one of their famous 
mtmt blancs. 1 wrote out a 
cheque for a sum sufficient to 
purchase, rear and feed a pig 
until such time as u was 
deemed ready for slaughter. 
The pig was to be kept some- 
where near its mistress's bouse 
in the department of Lot et 
Garonne In Gascony. 

For a townie like me, it is 
not an easy thing to kill any 
animal, let alone a large one 
like a pig. Pigs look appallingly 
human. Much of the time, they 
are far more familiar than 
monkeys. Just think back to 
the last time you took a subur- 
ban train, or the London 
Underground. 

For a long time now. I have 
suspected that Darwin might 
well have been barking up the 
wrong tree, and my theory 
seems ail the more feasible 
with the increasing use of pigs' 
organs In spare-part surgery. 

Yet. I felt I was Justified in 
two ways: historically and ethi- 
cally. In cooler climates and in 
mountainous regions, at least, 
man has been killing swine for 
food since the beginning of civ- 
ilisation. 


The slaughter of the fattened 
pig at the onset of winter was a 
moment of joy to be shared by 
the entire village. In some 
countries, the party has a spe- 
cial name - the matanza in 
Spain and the Schlachtfest in 
Germany. 

Then there is all the present 
fuss about meat and meat-eat- 
ing which. 1 am certain, is a 
reflection of our divorce from 
the land and our inability to 
grasp the needs and traditions 
of simple country folk. Used to 
buying our food in sterile plas- 
tic trays and pots we can no 
longer cope with the hard reali- 
ties of animal slaughter. In 
extreme cases we try to have it 
banned. 

All the more reason them 1 
thought, to experience the pro- 
cess at first hand. I was in 
France for a fortnight around 
the time of the new moon 
when the sow (they have swee- 
ter meat than boar pigs) could 
be relied upon to be off heat A 
Saturday was therefore chosen 
for its despatch. 

Killing pigs for family use is 
still tolerated in France, 
although the practice has died 
out in many regions. In the 
Garonne Valley the older men 
in the villages still kill pigs 
during the winter months. 

In some parts of Burgundy, I 
was told, the slaughter has 
became a spectator sport 
where people pay to be in at 
the kill and they allow the ani- 


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mal to bleed to death in the 
presumably bogus justification 
that it makes the flesh taste 
better. 

I was personally grateful for 
the fact that neither Jean-B 
nor Virginio, the two killers, 
thought that was the case. 1 
went to see the beast in its sty. 
It was squatting on its 
haunches. It stared at me with 
what seemed to be a mixture of 
malevolence and distrust. 
Jean-B dismissed the idea, 
however, that the annual knew 
what was in stare. 

Another man was strutting 
round the farmyard. In what 
seemed to be a gesture in keep- 
ing with the mood of the morn- 
ing, he picked up a scrawny 
chicken and broke its neck. He 
needed one for lunch, he said. 

A big cauldron was boiling 
in the bam. he dipped the life- 
less bird Into the tub and car- 
ried on his conversation while 
he plucked out the feathers. 
An ancient dog limped by on 
three legs. He expressed the 
opinion that it was about time 
that it. too, should go the same 
way. 

Jean-B went into the sty and 
managed to attach a rope to 
one of the pig’s hind legs. We 
were told to keep back, as the 
pig might have panicked if it 
had seen strangers at this 
point. 

We followed the animal into 
the barn where a table had 
been set up with knives and a 
plastic tub had been brought in 
and stationed under the sys- 
tem of pulleys which were to 
be the pig’s gibbet. 

Jean-B and Virginio held the 
pig while a second rope was 
attached to the other hind leg. 





of the day: pig in a pot 


at this point it almost broke 
loose and both men had to hold 
it fast to prevent it from escap- 
ing. 

Virginio held on to the ropes 
while Jean-B fetched a crow- 
bar. With the revolting crunch- 
ing thud he brought it down on 


the beast’s head. In a few sec- 
onds the animal was strun g up 
on the gibbet and both Virginio 
and the pig’s mistress had 
taken hold of Its head to allow 
Jean-B to slit the jugular. A 
torrent of blood gushed into 
the bucket 


The pig was now dead. The 
process had taken a minute at 
the most and the animal was 
out cold when the fatal inci- 
sion was made. The pig bucked 
once or twice and there was a 
soft groan as the air came out 
of its lungs. These, I were told. 


were only muscular contrac- 
tions. The pig was taken down 
and placed in its wooden bath 
or mat Resin was strewn over 
its skin and then boiling water. 
Now all three proceeded to the 
dermere toilette du cochon. 

The bristles were shaved 
from its back and belly while a 
blow-torch removed those from 
its snout and trotters. Once 
again it looked horribly 
human- Kkp a fet baby in a 
baby bath. 

Incisions to take the bar 
were made in the hind trotters 
and the pig was strung up for a 
second time. It was the 
moment to gut the animal The 
pig's mistress did the honours. 
Once it was open it looked 
more familiar, like a carcass in 
a butcher’s shop rather than 
the living beast of a moment 
before. 

As we had bought casings 
for the sausages, the womb 
and intestines could be thrown 
to the waiting dogs, already in 
a frenzy of excitement Even 
the tripod-bitch joined in, 
growling furiously over her 
comer of the tripe. 

From the inside of the rib- 
cage Jean-B cut grillades for 
our lunch, tittle bits of fillet he 
assured us. which the butchers 
never sold. Liver, kidneys, 
heart and lungs were put aside 
and the head was cut o ft. The 
carcass was then pulled up out 
of the reach of the dogs and we 
went back, to the house to deal 
with the black puddings. 

A bowl of shallots and garlic 
cloves was put out for me to 
peel while the liver, heart and 
lights was mixed with the 
blood for the black puddings. 
Up until now I bad felt only a 
slight revulsion at the sicken- 
ing thud which had knocked 
the pig out, a mood I had for- 
gotten. once a glass of whisky 
was considerately pushed into 
my hand. 


1 1 ^ 1 ' 


? I * ' 


1 i 1 


()I 1 




If 


Now as I merrily minced gar- 
lic for the puddings I inadver- 
tently sliced off the end of my 
left thumb, adding a little 
human blood to the porcine 
mix. That sight managed to 
bring out a cold sweat 

A glass of champagne 
brought me round, and I was 
able to enjoy the griUades 
cooked in the embers for the 
killers’ lunch. My wound kept 
me away from the work of that 
afternoon. Pates and sausages 
were made from the head 
meat, red meat and fattier bits, 
and cftocoi like Italian coppa. 
from the salted neck. The pud- 
dings, now in coil form, were 
simmered In a cauldron frill of 
stock. 

The next day I was woken by 
the sound of Jean-B hacking 
off chops, hams and roasting ' 
meat a few feet from my head. 
The work was interrupted by 
the inadequately explained 
arrival of more than a dozen 
girl guides in unif orm , anxious 
to perform good works around 
the house. 

They conspicuously ignored 
the by-now-atamised pig, while 
they cleaned windows and 
mended washing lines. At 
lunchtime the main work was 
over and a row of sausages 
was already bang in g up to dry. 
We settled down to an excel- 
lent lunch with part of the 
loin. 

The more repellent parts of 
the process were already Ear 
b ehind us, and the ham i bad 
coveted was already in the 
brine tub. It was Sunday after- 
noon and time to leave. We 
took a last cup of tea before 
catching our train. 

One of the dogs was chewing 
at something in the long grass: 
the jawbone of the hog. Now It 
was just a bone, already devoid 
of the emotive significance of 
the living beast we had killed 
only 30 hours before. 


; ! ^H k> i 


I-? Mill line Mew j. .-Wifry-de-ii Zauch. bekie.vhtK LEfi? IKP 
TrtephoneiOISJB^lJVSJFMinifJO-llJVWI 


The 1995 Bordeaux 


are coming! 


Pheim or lm ui now W 
of »l our V W5 Bord— u n o Ikrm. 

John Arm It Wines Limited 

S Ror»hySw*«. | 0Su*^"«4lJHid- ,vvl > l( 3 F 

Tdef*onc.0l7l-727M« Fax: 0171-727 7I3J 


With just a few weeks 
CO go, why not make 
space in your wallet? 
We pay top prices for 
Classed Growths... 
call Susie De Paolis 
on 0171-7276846. 


During the last couple of 
weeks I guess that many 
shoppers who had never given 
organic meat a thought are 
now contemplating buying 
nothing but 

This is probably good news 
In the long-term for 
companies such as Swaddles 
Green Farm of Somerset 
which produces a wide range 
of organic meat, meat 
products and ready-made 
gourmet dishes using 100 per 
cent organic ingredients. 

Needless to sav it is not 


Appetisers / Jill James 


cheap, but it Is not 
prohibitively expensive either, 
and there is the added plus 
that it is delivered, 
vacuum-packed, direct to your 
door. 

For detailed prices 
(examples: shoulder of lamb 
£5.70 a kilogram, leg of park 
£7.40 and whole chicken £5.60) 
and product list ring 01460- 
234387 or fax 01460-234591. 

■ An Easter outing that 


might appeal to the entire 
fkmily Is Weald and Downland 
Open Air Museum's 
traditional food (air, now in 

its sixth year. 

A regional gathering of 
suppliers and retailers of 
traditionally made food and 
drink, you can buy specialist 
sausages, farmhouse cheeses, 
elder, real ales, English 
country wines and bread 
made fry traditional methods. 


The fair runs tomorrow and 
Monday end admission 
charges are £4£0 for adults, 
£120 for children, £11.50 
family, and children under 
five are free. The ticket 
entitles you to visit the 
museum - 35 reconstructed 
buildings includin g a 
water-powered floor mill and 
medieval farmstead - and 
there is no extra far the food 
fair. For more details contact 
the museum at Singleton, 
Chichester, West Sussex. POLB 
oeu. TeL- oimsum 


Berry Bros* Rudd 


Seckford Wines 

WANTED 


WINE BROKING 


Wine to Sell? 


VINTAGE POST. CLARET 
& ROMANEE CONTI 
CASH PAID 


RICHARD HARVEY-JQNES 
Ttei: 01473 626072 
Fax: 61473 626604 


Contact Jamie Graham 
or Vicki Viilers 
on 0171 396 9600 
or fax 0171 396 9619 


Cash or 
Broking Terms 


Price list available on request 


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— ^. AL TtM£ ^ S WEEKEND APRIL 6/ APRIL 7/APRIL 8 1996 


WEEKEND FT 


FOOD AND DRINK 


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Cookery / Philippa Davenport 

Pasta fit 
for clerics 


M en of the doth, 1 
nave noticed, 
tend to be good 
eaters and drink- 
ers. I do not mean good as in 
carefhl about cholesterol levels 
and vitamin intake. I mean, 
not to put too fine a point on 
it. that many are greedy. 

Appetite-whetting food writ- 
ings Dow from the pens of 
. Anglican clerics - think of the 
Rev Sidney Smith and Parson 
Woodforde. Roman Catholic 
priests are more likely to con- 
centrate wholeheartedly on 
tucking in; no time for diaries 
: and essays. 

‘Perhaps it is because the 
Pope denies them the pleasur- 
: able distractions of wives that, 

‘ more than other denomina- 
■■ tions, they need to seek solace 
in the temptations of kitchen 
and cellar. 

Some of, the most knowledge- 
able and enthusiastic imbibers 
of fine claret that Z have met 
are Jesuits and Benedictines. I 
know at least one parish priest 
who believes he could out-wok 
Ken Horn if allowed to take his 
place as television chef. 

And 1 have dined with 
another fisher of men who is 
almost as dab-handed with 
dabs and other fruits of the sea 
as Rick Stein, chef-proprietor 
of The Seafood Restaurant, in 
Pads tow. Cornwall, and author 
of Taste of the Sea, winner of 
this year's Andre Simon 
award. 



Clerics who aspire to, but 
have not yet succeeded In, 
creating culinary triumphs are 
catered for by Darina Allen, 
the Irish food writer and owner 
of BaHymaloe Cookery School 
in County Cork. 

A few years ago she ran a 
short course specifically 
designed for would-be self-ca- 
tering parish priests. So popu- 
lar was it that it has become 
an annual event 

Priegts whose interests focus 
decidedly in favour of eating, 
rather than cooking up minor 
miracles with loaves and 
fishes, continue to cultivate 
good cooks in their parishes 
' and they perpetuate the cus- 
tom of making bouse visits 
close to mealtimes in the hope 
of being invited to share in the 
repast; 

In the great gastronomic 
province of Emilia-Romagna, 
this custom has presumably 
been taken to extremes for it is 
said that the parish priests 
there are finely attuned to the 
sounds and smells of the prepa- 
ration and cooking of their 
favourite dishes. 

Like moths to a flame, they 
are instinctively drawn to any 
house where and when these 
delicacies are on the menu. 
Indeed, certain pasta dishes in 
both Emilia-Romagna and the 
neighbouring province of 
Marche are known locally by 
such names as strangolapreti 
and sfrocrapref*'. meaning 
priest-chokers, because those 
who stuff them into their 
mouths furiously sometimes 
splutter and fight for breath in 
the process. 

Spinosi of Marche, pasta 
makers of distinctio n, spen t 2'. i 
years perfecting strozzapreti for 
ibeir range. Early attempts 


were apparently a little too 
heavy, the finish was a mite 
too shiny so sauces slid rather 
than clung as well as they 
mi gh t 

The product' that finally 
went on sale is exquisite, 
boasting all the usual Spinosi 
quality hallmarks (rich eggy 
flavour, bouncy texture, full- 
mouth feel and capable of hold- 
ing cooking point well) as well 
as witty and Joyfully exuberant 
shape. It seems appropriate to 
team this pasta with cephalo- 
pods, and I have done so twice 
over. 

PASTA AND PESTO SQUID 

(serves 4)- 

Seafood and pasta play equal 
roles in this recipe but the 
squid could be reduced to sauc- 
ing status by increasing the 
quantity of pasta used by at 
least half as much again. 

200g strozzapretl pasta 
shapes; 400g small squid; lOOg- 
150g spring cabbage, prefera- 
bly Primo l to 2 tablespoons 
virgin olive oil; about 6 tables- 
poons pesto Genovese. 

Clean the squid, slice the 
bodies into thin rings and 
leave the tentacles in bunches 
or cut them in half depending 
on size. 

Wash and shred the cabbage 
into fine ribbons. Cook the 
pasta in plenty of fast-boiling 
salted water. Steam the cab- 
bage or add it to the pasta 
pan for the last minute of cook- 1 
ing. 

Saute the squid for one, max- 
imum two minutes in hot dive 
oil. Toss in the pesto to arrest 
cooking and mix quickly with 
the cooked and drained pasta 
and brassica. Season to taste 
and serve without delay. 

STRANGLEHOLD SQUID 
WITH TOMATO, CHILLI 
AND LIME 
(serves 4) 

Like the previous redpe, tins is 
not a pasta dish in the usual 
sense. It is a generously fishy 
salade Hide, lip-tingling or 

mil d dep ending an the amoun t 

of chilli used. The squid can be 
cleaned and chopped and the 
dressing can be prepared sev- 
eral hours ahead, leaving only 
the swift simple tasks of boil- ' 
irigtbe pasta and sautfieiagthe 
squid to be done Just before 
seridfig; 

200g s t rozz a pretl; SOOg small 
squid; 20Qg ripe, meaty toma- 
toes (I would use plum toma- 
toes in summer. Canaries are 
the best bet now); one garlic 
clove; cue, two or three tiny 
pointy red Thai-type chillies; 
one lime; a little each sesame 
oil and virgin olive ofL 
Skin the tomatoes and cut in 
half. If using a non-plum vari- 
ety with a high liquid content, 
squeeze out and resave some 
of the juices or the dressing 
may be 1 too sloppy. Dice the 
rest and put it into a shallow 
serving bowl. De-seed the chil- 
li(es), chop them finely and add 
to the tomatoes together with 
the garlic crushed with sea 
salt, one tablespoon sesame oil, 
the finely grated zest of lime 
and freshly squeezed hme juice 
to taste. 

Clean and chop the squid as 
described in the previous rec- 
ipe. 

Just before serving, cook the 
pasta in plenty of boiling 
salted water and drain well. 
When the pasta is nearly 
cooked, saut§ the squid for 
one, TTiMrimiim two minutes in 
very hot dive ofl. 

Quickly add both ingredients 
to the dressing- Toss to mix 
well, check seasoning and thin 
with the reserved tomato 
juices to taste. Serve straight 
away. 

■ For stockists of Spinosi’s 
strazzapreti, ring the importer, 
Danmar International, on 
01784-477812. 


CHRISTIE’S 

Fine Wines 

. from a Continental Cetlarfl 

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• a superb uiigk-wndpr ssk, at 

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The real thing: sweet rice cookad in bamboo in a Thai Market - but London is catching up on the Thai taste stakes 


The sweet smell of Bangkok 

Nicholas Lander visits Talad Thai - a supermarket, restaurant, take-away and cookery school all in one 


W ednesday 
afternoons in 
Putney, south- 
west London, 
will never be 
the same. Although s tanding 
outside in the rain and biting 
wind, there was a sense of 
warmth, almost heat, coming 
from 66 polystyrene boxes 
piled on the wet pavement out- 
side Talad Thai, which is 
incongruously situated in a 
row of shops alongside Air 
Malta, a pharmacy and a des- 
erted dry cleaner's. 

The boxes had been packed 
24 hours previously at Bang- 
kok airport. Now wrapping 
was being tom away to reveal 
more than half a ton of the 
freshest Thai fruit vegetables, 
herbs, spices and flowers. 
There were bags of lemon 
grass, kaffir lime leaves, Thai 
shallots, galangal, red, green 
and - hottest of them all - 


yellow chillies wrapped, for 
extra protection, in banana 
leaves, coriander, fresh green 
peppercorns, kachai, morning 
glory for stir-fries, bettle nuts 
and Thai basil. According to 
chef Bruce Cost basil is used 
more widely in Thai cooking 
than in Italian kitchens. 

Another box revealed exqui- 
site purple orchids and jasmin 
flowers which London’s Thai 
community takes to prayer at 
its temple in Wimbledon. 
There were big bunches of 
plump Thai bananas, young, 
shaved coconuts ready to be 
cracked open for their milk, 
guavas, Thai pumpkins used to 
make a sweet custard, bitter 
melons and pummelo as well 
as ultra-sweet mangoes. Dur- 
ing July and August when 
they are in season, the pave- 
ment is stacked high with dur- 
iens, the foul smelling - but 
very sweet - fruit 


These boxes constitute the 
weekly shopping list of hus- 
band and wife, Piak and Pra- 
nee, who opened Talad Thai 
five years ago. They hoped, 
because of the shop's proxim- 
ity to the Thai temple, they 
would at least be assured of a 
good Sunday trade. 

If it were in London’s West 
End. Talad Thai would be 
labelled a gastrodome: there is 
a supermarket, a string of 
basic, unadorned restaurant 
tables that allow an uninter 
rupted view into the kitchen 
where, behind five woks, stand 
two Thai chefs who fulfil Talad 
Thai's three other functions - 
cafe, take-away and, on Sunday 
mornings, a Thai cooking 
school 

I ate a delicious, inexpensive 
lunch. My favourite Thai soup. 
kai thorn kha - pieces of 
chicken in creamy coconut 
milk with lemon grass, gslan- 


gal, kaffir lime leaves and chil- 
lies - was served, followed by 
goong Horn pha, four prawns, 
wrapped in rice pancakes and 
deep fried. Then came kai bai 
toey, chicken pieces wrapped in 
pandanus leaves and kuay Hew 
pad thai, stir fried noodles 
with prawns, tamarind sauce, 
roasted peanuts and salted tur- 
nips. With a Thai beer, the 
meal came to £18 for two. 

As we were finishing. Piak 
joined us to talk about his 
food. He said: "When we 
started in 1990 it was very diffi- 
cult because of the recession 
and because we are just a bit 
too for from the High Street 
But our wholesale business has 
grown because today there are 
several hundred Thai restau- 
rants in T^mdnn. 

“The big problem is the frag- 
lie nature of all that we import 
It is very, very hot in Bangkok 
at the moment and at least 10 


Book Review / Lesley Chamberlain 


Food of the gods remembered 

T hat the Greeks knew 
how to live was a 
scholarly 18th century 
German dream appar- 


per cent of what we fly in is 
unsaleable by the time it 
arrives. The only thing we can 
do with the coriander if it has 
turned brown, is throw it out 
It can be even worse if water 
gets inside the boxes or they 
are stacked too close to the 
engines. 

“Sunday is very busy with a 
lot of Thai people coming to 
see us after they have been to 
the temple; We also started the 
cookery school and we try each 
term to complete one type of 
Thai dish. Last term we taught 
all the different Thai curries, 
yellow, green, red, sour, masa- 
man and panang, and this term 
it's Thai noodle dishes." 

Talad Thai's business has 
also been boosted by the pres- 
ent vogue for Thai flavours 
and dishes in many non-Thai 
restaurants. When John 
Torode, chef at the 700-sea ter 
Mezzo restaurant in Soho, 
wanted lemon grass, galangal 
and Thai basil he asked Rush- 
ton Scranage, sales manager at 
George Allans, wholesalers at 
New Covent Garden, who in 
turn found Talad Thai 

Now Allans’ van calls in Put- 
ney every Thursday morning 


for Thai produce for use in the 
kitchens of Mezzo, Vong and 
Coast. According to Scranage: 
"Thai produce is becoming 
more and more fashionable 
and may prove to be the suc- 
cessor to Italian food. This 
week we have asked Piak for 
six new samples to try ouL" 
Such interest is prompting 
Piak and Pranee to consider 
extending their business into 
what was the dry cleaner's 
next door. If they do, and Talad 
Thai loses a little of its Alad- 
din's Cave nature, a trip to 
Putney will handsomely repay 
any food lover’s train fare. As I 
was leaving, I watched a beau- 
tiful food ritual as Pranee 
opened a box of young 
mangoes, each wrapped in a 
sheet of Thai newspaper, and 
laid them lovingly on a large 
dish covered in b anana leaves. 

■ Talad Thai, 320 Upper Rich- 
mond Road, Putney. London 
SW15 STL Tel: 0181-789 8084, 
fax 0181-789 S60L Open Mon- 
Sat 9am- 11pm; Sundays and 
bank holidays lOam-Spm, 

■ Bruce Cost Foods from the 
Far East (£15.99, 250 pages. 
Random House. UK, or Wm 
Morrow USX 


T hat the Greeks knew 
how to live was a 
scholarly 18th century 
German dream appar- 
ent! y founded in reality. 
Andrew Batty's carefully docu- 
mented account suggests the 
Ancient Greeks largely ate the 
Mediterranean food we covet 
today. 

Dog-eating lingered until the 
2nd century BC, and odd super- 
stitious practices stfil occurred, 
but the Greeks have evidently 
been enjoying wine, cheese, 
olive oil. pulses, honey, fruit 
aromatic seeds and fresh herbs 
since Homer’s time. 

This world has been familiar 
in language and literature, but 
the gastr o nomy of the ancients 
has made its way on to our 
tables only recently. Now we 
can compare our supper with 
Plato's, this simple, flavour- 
some diet rich in vegetables 
seems more familiar than the 
food of our grandparents. 

Dalby, a classicist, has done 
us a service in setting out the 
genealogy of the Greek table. 

The archaic Greeks ate sim- 
ply off local produce, and their 
diet hardly contained meat 
This changed with the evolu- 
tion of Greek trade. By the 
Classical period, culinary 
imports from around the Medi- 
terranean were sought after. 
The Athenians, a business peo- 
ple with money, quickly 
acquired a gastronomy which 
Archestratus wrote down. 

The newly codified art 
prized, among other delicacies, 
fish. The tuna, red and grey 
mullet, octopus and many 
other varieties of fish and sea- 
food which characterise Greek 
cuisine always seem to have 
been as special, and sometimes 
as expensive, as they are 
today. 

Ancient Greek dishes were 
pungent with fresh herbs and 
seeds, like fennel, poppy seed, 
sesame, cumin; coriander, 
thyme, dill and basil Another 
source of piquancy was garos, 
reminiscent of south-east 
Asian fish sauce, but first 



made in Europe by the Black 
Sea Greeks. 

Sylphium, which has since 
died out (the last stem given to 
Nero), did important work as a 
forerunner of garlic. Imported 
from Greek colonies in North 
Africa, it was grated over 
everything savoury. 


SIREN FEASTS: A 
HISTORY OF FOOD 
AND GASTRONOMY 
IN GREECE 
by Andrew Dalby 

Routicdge £55. 520 pages 


Imported food made for qual- 
ity and variety and made your 
reputation because of its 
expense. Imports were neces- 
sary because Greek terrain was 
so varied, and the local soil not 
always good. Dalby draws the 
contrast with Rome, where a 
man showed off bis wealth 
with fresh produce from his 
own farm. 

Fourth century Greeks cov- 


eted local specialities because 
they were exactly that: goat’s 
milk from Scyros and almonds 
from Naxos, Sicilian cheese, 
and certain wines had a unique 
cachet 

A wealthy man employed his 
own Sicilian cook. He also 
enjoyed white bread. Bread 
was a tailing social and eco- 
nomic indicator in a country 
where wheat hardly flourished. 
Yet it seems imported wheat 
was not worth- the out- 
lay. 

Many people, not just the 
less well off, ate barley. Unlike 
the Romans, they enjoyed bar- 
ley as their staple. The real 
poor ate from the hedgerows. 

In this society, there were 
fftwmmai meals in the town 
hall, and private meals at 
home. A hired man took care 
of the sacrifice before the men 
of the family came to eat, fol- 
lowed by the women. Appar- 
ently any roast meat aroma 
would placate the gods. The 
ancient Greeks rarely ate beef 
or veal. They chose a variety of 
birds, fowl, and, for real 


flavour, wild ass or hare. 

Those semi-public occasions 
called symposia were male 
orgies which began after the 
main eating finished. Or some- 
times the hetairai, the mistress 
class, hosted them. Along with 
wine and nuts for dessert came 
flute girls, erotic dancers, acro- 
bats and the possibility of 
uninhibited sex with not-one’s- 
wife. 

Plato describes in his Sympo- 
sium how Socrates called for 
the flute girl to go and play 
elsewhere while the men 
talked about the nature of love. 
But even serious-minded sym- 
posiasts got drunk and played 
the wine-chucking game kotta- 
bos. Plato tells us the beautiful 
Alcipiades, loved by Socrates, 
turned up the worse for wear 
after a sympcsaimi-crewL 

Greek spicy wine, though 
taken watered, was sweet and 
fortified, like retsina with 
sugar and a kick, so it is no 
wonder that they got drunk. Its 
potency did not frighten the 
married women, who had a 
reputation for drinking it all 
night, neat, in her own quar- 
ters. 

In short, everyone in Athens 
was overdoing it and Plato, 
who thought it too expensive 
to eat two meals a day and 
never sleep alone at night, 
observed that Spartans had 
more self-discipline. But, as 
Dalby observes, the Spartans 
had no money. 

No review can do justice to 
the packed detail in this 
unique book, drawing on the 
archeology of prehistoric sites, 
the inventories of shipwrecked 
cargoes, ruined storerooms, 
vase-painting and litera- 
ture. 

It is a fascinating dip and 1 
would have reckoned it a 
grand dinner had it been a lit- 
tle more digestibly presented, 
and with more spice from the 
philosophers. 

■ Lesley Chamberlain's Festive 
Food of Russia is published on 
April u by Kyle Cathie (£4.99, \ 
60 pages) 1 


//unting for Perfection 




Ah~ 

haf 


mmmmi 


A finely balanced, 
deliriously smooth ule. 
with a nubile blend of 
flavour*. A fitting 
reward fur all who 
pursue perfection. 

Caleb one at your local. 

Brewed by Morland 
of Abingdon. 

Eflt’d. 171 L 








/} i ' ) 


VIII WEEKEND FT 


FINANCIAL TIMES 


WEEKEND APRIL 6/APRIL 7/APRIL S 1996 



TRAVEL 


An island refuge for eccentric millionaires 


F ather Jack White, in dog 
collar and black slacks, 
stepped out of bis Japa- 
nese jeep, picked up a 
battered old suitcase, and 
headed towards Passer's bar. 

“Good morning." he greeted the 
early risers in a strong Irish accent. 
They had gathered in the pub over- 
looking the boats and three pelicans 
nosediving in the clear blue Carib- 
bean waters of Leverick Bay on Vir- 
gin Garda. At the end of the jetty, a 
red telephone box under a Shell Oil 
sign reminded them they were in a 
British dependent territory. 

“It's a special day. isn’t it?" the 
old priest said “It’s the feast of the 
National Apostle," he added, for 
those who might have forgotten it 
was St Patrick's Day. 

Every Sunday morning at eight. 
Father White celebrates mass in 
Purser's bar, a trendy hangout for 
yachting types in the British Virgin 
Islands. "But please don't tell all 
your friends I say mass in the bar. 
The bishop would be very" angry- 
Tell them I celebrate it around the 
bar." he said with a big grin as he 
opened his suitcase, screwed 
together the three parts of his por- 
table chalice and placed a white 
linen doth on the bar between the 
beer pumps and the cash register. 

In place of candlesticks stood two 
wooden statues of naked females 
holding globe-shaped lights on 
either side of the makeshift altar. 
Empty- bottles from the night before 
were strewn on the tables, along 
with the dregs of the local rum 
cocktail known as “Pusser's pain- 
killer". St Patrick would approve. 

1 had been persuaded to attend 
Father White's early morning ser- 
vice by Peter Shaindlin, the man- 
ager of Little Dix Bay. the resort 
built by Laurence Rockefeller ou 
the southern end of Virgin Gorda. 
“Living here is like being in a 
Broadway show," be said. “It's a 
crazy kind of place." 

Eccentricity is the hallmark of 
this Caribbean hideaway: it always 
seems to have attracted the more 
original sort of millionaire. The first 
to come was Rockefeller. With his 
Little Dix resort he set the trend. 30 
years ago. for what can best be 
described as luxury eco-tourism. 
The latest is the British tycoon 
Richard Branson, who built a plea- 
sure palace on nearby Necker 
island. 

Like its founder. Little Dix is rich 
but eccentric. The hotel's manager 
describes it as "shockingly simple” 
- but with rooms averaging $400 a 
night, simplicity comes at a price. 
Half the rooms still have no air 
conditioning, and many bathrooms 
have no bath tubs, only showers. 
There are no televisions, and tele- 
phones were placed in the rooms 
only last year. There is no swim- 
ming pool, although Shaindlin 
plans to build a fitness centre and 
what he calls a meditation pool - 
one of those pools on the edge of a 


Paul Betts savours the expensive simplicity of a Caribbean resort where less has always been seen as more 





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Treasure island: with the children's centre devoid of Disney or Nintendo, young guests at Little Dix think green, with sheU-cofleeting expeditions and lessons in local crafts provided 


Dougnl D. Thornton 


cliff which seems to Dow into the 
blue horizon. That is how Rocke- 
feller liked it “He did not want bath 
tubs because he felt it would insult 
islanders who had no water in their 
homes." Shaindlin explained. 

Now in his 80s, Rockefeller still 
visits Little Dix. Shaindlin recalled 
bow he saw the milli onaire sweat- 
ing in the midday heat tinder a 
coconut palm, calling his New York 
office from a public phone. He 
asked if be wanted to use the 
hotel's air-conditioned office. “No," 
he replied. “The best things in life 
are free. Few things give me a thrill 
these days and one of them is to 
call my office from under a coconut 
palm." 

By modem resort standards, Lit- 
tle Dix is small. It has 98 rooms 


Languor that 
harboured 
a genius 

Nigel Andrews visits Fort Myers to pay 
homage to inventor Thomas Edison 

A s a film critic I knew that eyed creature is in permanent res 
1995-96 would be a danger- dence, peering down at you froi 
ous time. The world would the highest fork, 
be ravaged by 100th birth- On the boulevard's left, bowere 


A s a film critic I knew that 
1995-96 would be a danger- 
ous time. The world would 
be ravaged by 100th birth- 
day celebrations for the cinema. 
Television would go berserk with 
Hollywood documentaries; publish- 
ing companies would release truck- 
loads of encyclopaedias; and 
Britain's Lord Attenborough would 
rouse the nation through tears and 
side- whiskers. 

Was there some town where one 
could escape such enforced delir- 
ium, just for a week or two? Some 
spot where one could pay respect to 
cinema's birthday without being 
trampled to death by it? 

Fort Myers on the Gulf Coast of 
Florida was the answer. I knew it of 
old. a languid sprawl of rivers, 
inlets and palm-lined avenues 
where Thomas Alva Edison had his 
winter home. Edison picked it at 
the end of the last century, shortly 
after inventing the cinema. He was 
soon to pronounce: “There is only 
one Fort Myers and 90m people are 
going to find out about it" 

In high season these days all 90m 
seem to be on Fort Myers Beach, a 
commercialised atoll joined to the 
city's outer limits by a high-arched 
bridge. If Edisou came to this spot 
today he would have to jostle with 
the rest of America for a hot dog 
and milk shake. Inland, though. 
Fort Myers becomes a dream: gen- 
teel, spacious, luxuriant. You drive 
towards the town centre along 
McGregor Boulevard, most of whose 
flanking Royal Palms were 
imported from Cuba by Edison him- 
self in 1900. Though Florida grows 
.s imil ar palms in the Everglades, a 
boat journey from Cuba was then 
thought easier than an ox-cart trek 
through the swamps. 

Edison's estate is at the top of the 
avenue on both sides. On the right 
are the laboratory grounds, which 
can be entered either by car 
through a bougainvillea-dad His- 
panic archway or by foot through a 
wicket gate guarded by a tall tree 
with a raccoon at the top. This kohl- 


scattered in cottages along a glori- 
ous semi-circle of white sand, 
backed by a sculptured garden of 
palms, tropical flowers, cacti and 
shrub. The beach is protected by a 
coral reef with a single narrow 
opening. The lagoon inside invites 
lazy swimming and snorkelling. 

But the scale of the project can- 
not be underestimated. When Rock- 
efeller bought 142 acres of land in 
Little Dix Bay and leased a ftirtber 
365 acres of Crown land adjoining 
the property in the late 1950s, there 
were only 600 inhabitants dnTugm 
Gorda. There was no running water 
and no electririty. 

The American philanthropist's 
idea was to develop a resort that 
would be consistent with his philos- 
ophies of conservation but enable 


guests to relax in simple comfort in 
a setting of great natural beauty. He 
built similar properties on other 
Caribbean islands as part of his 
Rock Resorts group, but Little Dix 
was the jewel in the crown. 

He used local stone, red cedar, 
purple heart locust wood, mahog- 
any and wallaba shingles to con- 
struct his property. Later he built 
one of the finest yachting harbours 
in the Caribbean complete with 
haul -out storage and repair facili- 
ties run by the hotel in the small 
-'settlement of Spanish Town. 

Rockefeller sold his properties 
three years ago. Little Dix is now 
owned by Bankers Trust and man- 
aged by Rosewood, the Dallas lux- 
ury hotel group. It has spent $10m 
rebuilding the place, which was 


badly damaged by three hurricanes 
last year. Tall date palms were 
shipped from Israel by container 
ship for instant landscaping, and a 
Boeing 747 jumbo was chartered to 
bring 4,000 pieces of furniture from 
the Philippines. 

Although changes have been 
made. S haindlin, who worked with 
Rockefeller before jo ining Rose- 
wood, insisted the new management 
was anxious to preserve the charac- 
ter of the resort. The atmosphere is 
at times similar to a Caribbean ver- 
sion of Reid's, the grand old 
watering hole in Madeira where 
afternoon tea on the verandah is an 
institution and dinner jackets are 
de rigueur in the dining room. 

The dress code at Little Dix is less 
formal. But tea is also served on the 


'■ v •• - . . .. :•••;■.■ „• 




eyed creature is in permanent resi- 
dence, peering down at you from 
the highest fork. 

On the boulevard’s left, bowered 
in a Jungle-like garden, is the Edi- 
son house. Cool white rooms stuffed 
with mementoes open their win- 
dows to the Gulf Coast zephyrs and 
any stray red cardinal, that most 
striking of Florida's small birds, one 
of which Dies in and sings from a 
window ledge. 

You can look at the house and 
laboratory in any order. But if you 
do the house and garden first, pre- 
pare for the terror of the conducted 
tour. You need one, since as well as 
inveuting everything from the radio 
and gramophone to the electric 
toaster. Edison was a plant collec- 
tor. The 9-acre grounds contain 400 
plant and tree varieties, mast of 
them foreign to the US. 

Orchids run riot on mango trees. 
Frangipani and Java plum scent the 
air. A sausage tree and fried egg 
tree lire in judicious proximity. 
C anno nball and dynamite trees - 
the latter is shotgun-loud as it 
explodes Its seeds over 200ft - may 
help to explain Edison's premature 
deafness. And the panama hat 
palm's fibre is, naturally, used to 
produce panama hats. 

Meanwhile across the boulevard, 
standing outside the green wooden 
shed that bears the historic sign 
“laboratory", is Florida's largest 
banyan tree. This root-trailing, 
boardwalk-threaded monster was 
given to Edison in 1934 by the tyre 
tycoon Henry Firestone. 

All else besides. Edison pioneered 
the motor tyre. Urged on by friend- 
ship with Firestone and proximity 
to Henry Ford, whose own winter 

home-c urn-museum happens to be 

next door to Edison's in Fort Myers, 
the inventor grew goldenrod in his 
garden to make rubber. A piece of 
it. dated 1927. sits in awesomely 
well-preserved state on the desk in 
his laboratory. 

This building, a long clapboard 
shack painted dark green to blend 
with nature, is a time-capsule in 


v '.vT’hiSSSES *? 





More than just a plait collector: Thomas Edison bi hte laboratory 


disguise. Walking round it. your 
Jaw keeps dropping at the realisa- 
tion of how much this man actually 
invented. The guidebook, trying to 
keep up. contains sentences such as 
“he left the telephone temporarily 
and invented the phonograph". Edi- 
son bequeathed 1.097 patents, all or 
which are in use today. 

You can see his experimental 
model phonograph, plus the first 
ever record, of Mary Had a Little 
Lamb, recorded on a 5in by Sin strip 
of tinfoil. Losing his hearing in old 
age, Edison would place his teeth 
on the record player's wooden 
frame to catch the recording's 
vibrations. 

You see his early mimeograph 
machine; his first microphone; his 
collection of trial storage batteries, 
an invention that took more than 
40,000 experiments; his successful 
model for a miner's lamp; his 
patented toaster. Insulated wire, 
electric light bulb, hair curler, per- 
colator. cigar lighter, waffle iron, 
spark plugs... 


Almost the only thing Edison did 
not invent was the dictaphone. He 
worked on a similar machine that 
he called the Ediphone. But the first 
dictaphone was made by, believe it 
or not a Mr Dick. 

The tour's grand finale is the pre- 
sentation of the 12 different models 
of film projector, from home to com- 
mercial, all made by Edison. Here 
for the movie buff are the very ori- 
gins of the motion picture: an art 
that depends on forcing light 
through machinery so tortured and 
tortuous that only a mad scientist, 
and only the greatest of them, could 
have thought it up. 

Not all this brainstorming was 
done in Fort Myers. Edison created 
his “Black Maria”, the first moving 
picture studio, up in his longer* 
established habitat in New Jersey. 
Likewise the Kinetophone. kmeto- 
graph and kinelscope. But the Fort 
Myers museum, in addition to its 
dazzling collection, commemorates 
the place where Edison tinkered on 
tirelessly into old age. 


Between laboratory sessions, be 
perhaps went for walks along the 
waterways alive with herons, 
ospreys and egrets. Or he might 
have crossed over by boat to Sani- 
bel and Captiva, pearly islands rich 
in seashells and flamingoes where 
wealthy snowbirds (American slang 
for winter vacationers) retire to 
bungalows wreathed in jasminn 

Or again Edison might have 
taken a longer boat trip, like his 
tourist descendants, into the conflu- 
ence of the Orange and Catoosa- 
hatc h ee rivers. Here he would have 
strayed unknowing into a spot that, 
decades later, would have its own 
magic for movie-lovers. 

A mile up the Caloosahatchee 
there is a jungle-like bend to which 
Hollywood returned again and 
again to film exotic B-movies. If you 
seek the lair of the Creature From 
the Black Lagoon, seek it not In 
California but here in Florida. Like 
Thomas Alva Edison, the creature 
had the good taste to make his 
home is Fort Myers. 


terrace under the open dining pavil- 
ion every afternoon at 4J30. Like 
Reid's, the manager hosts a cocktail 
party for guests every Monday 
evening. On Fridays, guests are 
invited to join the director of horti- 
culture on a tour of the gardens. 

Some allowances have to be made 
to modem times. Only recently has 
the hotel allowed children under 
five to stay. “But we take small 
children under control, ■* added 
Sh aindlin . 

The children are tidied away in 


air-conditioned -rooms with glass - -Dix Bay,-PO Box 70, Virgin Gorda, 


windows to control the noise, and 
cared lor in a children's centre run 
by two teachers. There is no Disney 
or Nintendo in the centre and the 
children are encouraged to think 
green, with shell-collecting expedi- 


BVL Tel 1 809-495 5555, Fax 1 809-495 
5083. He flew with. American Air- 
lines, which operates services from 
London to Tortola via San Juan, 
Puerto Rico. UK reservations, Tel 
0345-789789. 


Cannes in a 
cold climate 


L ogic suggests that if a 
French woman who knits is 
a tricoteuse, one who plays 
Scrabble must be a scrab- 
bleuse. Signs for a Scrabble contest 
at the Palais des Festivals in 
Cannes were posted exclusively In 
the masculine singular, but the 300 
or so contestants in the sous sol, 
silently piecing together words 
against the clock, were exclusively 
feminine. 

Wandering in search of some- 
thing less sepulchral, my eye was 
caught by a placard announcing 
“Scrabble Initiation Mary*. Now 
here was surely where the action 
was. Well, sort of. Mary was a dig- 
nified fortysomething, teaching her 
clients the mysteries of the ana- 
gram and, though tt is hard to see 
how it would earn you many 
points, the palindrome. “Madam," 
read a sign In her improvised class- 
room, Tm Adam.” 

It is an advantage of off-season 
weekend breaks that you feel no 
pressure to do anything in particu- 
lar. Certainly no pressure, though 
the March sun was s hining at a 
benevolent IS D C on the Croisette 
and rash bathers braved the Medi- 
terranean, to stretch out on one of 
those private beaches where, in 
summer, a lounger mil cost you 
£20 or more for an eight-hour stint 
I ambled into the Festival des 
Jeux on a whim. It was being 
staged in a b uilding which, each 
May, is home to the Cannes film 
festival. Outside the stars and 
directors have left their palm 
prints in concrete, as they have on 
the pavement outside Mann’s Chi- 
nese Theatre in Los Angeles. But 
here they honour not just the 
giants of Hollywood but the likwa of 
Arietty and Claude Bent. 

Not far away an affable young 
man called Philip offered to write 
your name on a grain of rice for 
FFr30. 1 remembered being able to 
buy a five-course lunch for less. 
There was no more to it, he 
expla ined, than a steady hand, a 
magnifying glass and a stylo with a 
very ftae point. He could cram in 
almost as many characters as there 
are in the full title of a Spanish 
duke but he was otherwise a jour- 
nalistic disappointment, since he 
could not remember penning the 
name of a single screen idol. 

There were relatively few for- 
eigners about. Cannes offers other 


tions, iguana hunts and lessons in 

local crafts. , . . 

On the beach, rich American and 
European couples whiled away the 
time reading, paddling, sunbathing, 
snorkling, tramping up and down 
the white sand, indulging m all 
lands of watersports. Many have 
been coming back for years. They 
include Washington lawyers, ageing 
Wall Street whizz kids, Hollywood 
producers, famous actors, En gl i sh 
lords, honeymooners. and now fami- 
lies with small children. 

I bumped into a young American 
couple who said they met in cyber- 
space on the Internet and were now- 
developing their relationship. The 
Queen and Prince Philip also came 
here. Mrs Ernest Hemingway 
stayed. “Many former American 
presidents tend to come after they 
lose the election. When out, both 
Carter and Ford came to escape," 
Shaindlin said. 

Even former presidents do not 
have keys to their rooms. There are 
no keys. The island is one ctf the 
safest in the Caribbean, In sharp 
contrast to the nearby US Virgin 
Islands, which have become one of 
the highest -crime regions in the US. 
"Everybody here knows everybody 
and there is nowhere for a criminal 
to hide,*' one local said. 

There is. however, a drug prob- 
lem in the islands because oT the 
archipelago's position as the last 
staging post between Colombia and 
the US. “A typical pattern is an air 
drop at night in our waters.” 
explained David Mackilligan, the 
governor. “The consignment is then 
taken by fast boat to St Thomas in 
the US Virgin Islands.” 

Father White said the bishop 
nearly fell off his chair when he 
told him his new church of St 
Ursula in Spanish Town lay in the 
heart of the settlement's red light 
district “1 meant it literally,” the 
parish priest explained. 

After receiving an unexpected 
$500,000 donation from a couple of 
eccentric Americans. Father White 
was able to build his church on a 
hfl] d ominating the town, with mag- 
nificent views over the Sir Francis 
Drake Channel and other Islands. 
Its name was chosen because Chris- 
topher Columbus was so struck by 
the islands' beauty that he com- 
pared than to St Ursula and her 
11.000 virgins. 

Father White also erected two red 
beacons on top of the cross on the 
roof of St Ursula. "I simply had to 
do it. I didn't want one of those 
small drug smuggling aircraft flying 
low at night without its lights on 
crashing into our lovely new 
church." 

■ Paul Betts was a guest of Little 


benefits in winter. There is rarely 
any need, for example, to book a 
table for dinner. In the old town, Le 
Suquet, some patrons spent Friday 
evening gazing into the steep 
streets in the hope of hiring some 
hungry, passing tour group. 

The weather inevitably proved 
fickle. By Saturday a cold wind was 
blowing from the Alpes Maritimes 
and I made an excursion to Antibes 
and the Picasso Museum. Picasso 
used the Chateau d’ Antibes as a 
studio in 1946, and the time he 
spent there with his mistress Fran- 
poise Gflot was particularly happy. 
There is a warmth and a twinkle 
about the work inspired by his 
brief stay, above all in the fine col- 
lection of ceramic dishes and their 
cornflower bine grapes, fat cherries 
and swift paint strokes. 

There was some warmth, too, in 
the basement of the Comic Strips 
Cafe, on whose racks I was amused 
to find, alongside Tin Tin, a title 
called Biggies et Le Dernier Zeppe- 
lin. 

Out on the headland among the 
tm tenanted villas of the rich and 
famous, the chill returned. Here is 
the Chfitean Croe, where Edward 
and Mrs Simpson stayed; Jules 
Verne's former villa Les Chenes 
Verts, near the Hotel dn Cap and 
the Eden Roc; and the Belles Rives, 
where Scott Fitzgerald came. In 
winter you can only imagine 
ghostly cocktail laughter on the 
wind. 

Sunday brought rain pmf a trip 
to the splendid covered market in 
Cannes to buy fresh goats cheese 
and Bleu des Causses for dinn er 
that evening, back home. 

_ Later, while stuffing my crumb- 
ling baguettes into the overhead bin 
on the flight home, I wondered if 
the scrabbleuses were still at it. 
Then It occurred that the second 
person plural of “to leave" (guittez) 
would be a killer on a French 
Scrabble board, with the Q and the j 
Z both ou doable squares. 

Roger Bray 

■ Roger Bray stayed at the Noga 
Hilton. Cresta Holidays (0161-926 
9999) offers two-night weekend 
breaks there, flying with Air France 
In late March and April the cost is 
£336 a person (bed and breakfast) in 
a twin room. Airport transfers from 
Nice are not included. A Group A 
hire car for two days costs £56. 










LJ* l&P I 









Sfe 


TIMES WEEKEND APRIL 6/APRIL 7/APRIL 8 1996 


WEEKEND FT 



TRAVEL 


* 


T be graveyard was 
enormous, the size 
of a small farm, and 
dotted haphazardly 
over its fresh green 
Brass were hundreds of grey 
headstones, some tall, some 
short, all feeing in the same 
direction and a 1] without 
inscription. 

With ragged tops like the tat- 
tered edges of torn newspaper 
most of the stones looked 
unfinished. And so they were 
for, far from being a place of 
the dead, each one of these 
‘'stones" was a living termite 
mound, a high-rise city of 
vibrant activity. 

These so-called magnetic ter- 
ete mounds are only a few 
inches thick but about eft tan 
and half as wide. They are as 
smooth as a part-sucked lolly 
and aligned on a north-south 
axis in order to obtain the 
maximum warmth from the 
early and late sun but not to 
overheat at midday. Grass-eat- 
ing termites inhabit these solar 
powered homes and it is 
claimed that each mound con- 
sumes the equivalent of a large 
herbivore. 

Magnetic termite mounds 
are unique to the region of 
Litchfield, a new. 165.000-acre, 
national park a couple of 
hours' drive to the south of 
Darwin in Australia’s Top End. 

Its centre is a great plateau 
of hard sandstone with a 
softer, eroded sandstone on 
top. Like a wet sponge on a 
brick, the soft rock holds per- 
manent water and releases it 
as springs to tumble over high 
ochre cliffs into deep, dark 
pools in a series of picturesque 
waterfalls. 

The result is a dry open for- 
est veined with green pockets 
of monsoon rainforest which 
follow the course of the creeks 
or streams. 

Overshadowed by larger and 
better known Kakadu, many 
visitors hardly give Litchfield a 
second glance, rushing to sev- 
eral of its best known falls in 
little more than an afternoon. 
And they go to busy public 
places with large car parks and 
picnic areas where steps and 
railings enable swimmers to 
reach the water easily. At one I 
even watched a bloated green 
goanna, or monitor lizard, 
ill-tempered and over-fed, ter- 
rorise picnickers for tit-bits. 

By walking less than a mile. 
Terry Patroni. our guide, took 
us away from the crowds to 
exquisite pools with their own 
glinting cascades - places we 
would never have found with- 
out his direction. 

Admittedly, it was hot but 



monitor, a harmless aquatic fcard, happy to bask on the the river bank 


A flicker of outback blue 

Michael J. Woods finds hidden treasures in Litchfield National Park 


we took it at a steady pace, 
pausing occasionally to drink 
fresh water from the creek 
which swirled beside us and. 
with the promise of a swim at 
the end, it was well worth the 
effort No paths lead to these 
secluded treasures and Patroni 
follows a different route both 
in and out an each occasion to 
conceal his tracks. Sometimes 
he walks on bed-rock, at others 
he follows a pig trail 

Our destinations were not of 
sufficient size and grandeur to 
suck in tbe masses. And we 
felt as though we were the first 
to have set eyes on some areas. 

Brilliant damselflies and 
dragonflies darted and hovered 
over the water. They avoided 
the tough, strategically placed 
spiders' webs but were rarely a 
match for rainbow bee-eaters, 
gloriously plmnaged little birds 
which darted from carefully 
selected perches and then 
returned to beat their prey 
against the preferred twig with 
quick flicks of their bills. 

At one pool, two water moni- 
tors, harmless aquatic lizards, 
were happy to bask on the 


bank and allow me to come 
within a couple of yards before 
slipping silently into the 
depths. Even the water, 
warmed from flowing as a thin 
skein over hot rocks, is wel- 
coming. 

We camped on a private site 
in the. traditional Australian 
way, unrolling our swags or 
bedrolls under the stars and 
carefully tucking our mosquito 
nets around the mattress 
edges. 

During the day we slapped 
the occasional horse fly. At 
night, mosquitoes made long 
sleeves and trousers advisable. 
A little insectivorous bat, 
silent in comparison with its 
flying fox relatives, was a wel- 
come visitor, patrolling outside 
- my net and picking hungry 
whining insects from its folds. 

After a supper of crisp stir- 
fried vegetables, with steaks 
which covered half the plate, 
Patroni, who once mustered 
cattle for a living, explained 
how to deal with a troublesome 
bull. “You gallop alongside.” 
he explained casually, “And 
grab its tail. Then you step off 


your horse. As the bull turns 
to attack, he trips over his own 
front feet and goes down. Grab 
a hind leg, hold It up and you 
have him.” 

I fen asleep wondering how 
you could possibly practise 
stepping off a horse at full gal- 
lop with a ton of angry bull in 
one hand? 

Near the track to our camp- 
site was the home of a great 
bower bird, an archway of 
grasses covering its collection 
of lovingly collected pbjects. 

Ibis particular species gath- 
ers white thing s - snail shells 
and stones - and sometimes 
green ones such as broken 
glass. 

Strangely enough I had seen 
tme of these birds displayed at 
the award-winning Territory 
Wildlife Park only a few days 
before. About 24 miles “down 
the track*, as Top Enders 
affectionately call the tarred 
Stuart Highway, which strad- 
dles the country from Darwin 
to Adelaide, this park sets out 
to exhibit only those spedes 
found in the Northern Terri- 
tory. 


Although the park is still in 
its infancy, most of the dis- 
plays are good, concentrating 
particularly on threats to the 
territory's wildlife habitats. 

The nocturnal house is one 
of the best I have seexuAbout 
three-quarters of the creatures 
were active and in view and 
even the water rats were plop- 
ping in and out of their pool, 
visible diving under water 
through the glass-fronted 
cage. 

I always enjoy coming across 
tbe natural inhabitants of such 
places and, not only were fruit 
bats roosting in the rainforest, 
but as I drove round the park 
with Leo Oosterweghel, the 
development manager, we 
came across a blue-tongued 
slrink, 

Oosterweghel leapt out and 
caught tbe sausage^shaped liz- 
ard, which has ridiculously 
undeveloped legs. Obligingly 
the skuik opened its mouth 
and flicked its royal blue 
tongue bade and forth, tasting 
the air. 

As we were leaving Litch- 
field for Darwin a few days 


later, a similar skink was 
crossing the road. Patroni, hap- 
pily, grabbed it for us to see. 
This animal was not so coop- 
erative and resolutely refused 
to open its mouth to reveal its 
most distinguishing feature. 
Only those with the patience to 
wait finally glimpsed a flicker 
of that wonderful tongue. 
Litchfield is much tbe same: it 
is easy to see the obvious but 
the park is so much more 
enjoyable if you take the 
time to search for its hidden 
glories. 

■ Michael Woods travelled to 
Litchfield National Park with 
Wild Quest Tours, PO Box 62. 
Howard Springs. Australia 
0835. Tel- 089-831557. 

The Territory Wildlife Park 
(Cox Peninsula Road, Berry 
Springs. NT. Tel:089.6000) is 
open from 8.30am until 4pm. Go 
early while it is still cool and 
the inhabitants core active. 

For more details of travel 
opportunities to Litchfield 
National Park, contact the Aus- 
tralian Tourism Commission. 
Tel: 0181-780 2227. 


Game Watching / J.D.F. Jones 

Rough and 
the smooth 


T here are two best 
ways to go African 
game- watching, I 
have decided after 
years of exhausting research. 
The first is to get fit, to 
renounce comfort and to do 
it on foot in the company of a 
rifle-bearing guide, sleeping 
out either in the open or 
under canvas (a good exam- 
ple would be to book on to 
one of tbe Natal Parks 
Board's “Wilderness Trails"). 
Yon may not see the Big 
Five, bat you will never for- 
get the experience. 

The second is to take a 
deep breath, defy your bank 
manager and opt for the lux- 
ury end of the market. Treat 
it, if you must, as a once-in-a- 
tifetime indulgence. Decline 
the conventional package 
tour promoted by travel 
agents, which typically will 
take you to the lion's kill in 
a zebra-striped Volkswagen 
bus - yon and 100 others, 
lined up in a dozen identical 
vehicles. 

There is, of course, luxury 
and Luxury, and South 
Africa - for instance - has 
both. Consider just one area 
in the republic, the cluster of 
private game estates lining 
the western border of the 
gigantic national Krnger 
Park in the Eastern Trans- 
vaal. Londolozi, Mala Mala 
and Sabi Sabi are venues for 
the international jet set and 
some of their prices can be 
stratospheric. 

Jnst next to them is a 
group of high-comfort pri- 
vate lodges which form the 
“Sabi Sand Wildpark" - Iny- 
ati, Ulusaba. Ululapa, 
Indube. Dulini, Exeter. These 
separate operations have 
joined forces so that their cli- 
ents can share, according to 
strict ecological rules, their 
wonderful game resources. 

The snag of the big parks 
(in particular, the interna- 
tionally renowned Kruger) is 
that you are not allowed to 
drive off the road and are 
usually required to sit in a 
roofed vehicle. You can 
sometimes spend a whole day 


looking at impala and the sil- 
houette of a distant croco- 
dile. 

In tbe private parks on the 
edge of Kruger you have an 
open Land Cruiser (which 
gives you total safety from 
animals, so long as you do 
not stand up, because they 
have grown np with the 
vehicles and take no notice 
of them), and you can go 
“bundn bashing" - which 
means that your ranger, with 
the help of his tracker bal- 
anced on the front bumper, 
can take you off the trade 
into tbe thickest bush when- 
ever be bears the grunt of a 
mating leopard, or glimpses 
the spoor of a hungry pride 
of lion, a shy rhino, or what- 
ever. These things you can- 
not do in Kruger, for all that 
it is a magnificent, heavily 
stocked experience. 

lnyati is probably the best 
example of the Sabi Sand 
lodges, with a large propor- 
tion of its clientele from 
Europe. The routine is famil- 
iar to African wildlife holi- 
days: wake at dawn: tea and 
rusks; the morning game 
drive for two to three hours, 
crasbtng through the thorn 
trees; a giant breakfast; a' 
game walk, unless yon prefer 
the swimming pool; lunch; 
siesta; the afternoon drive at 
-L30, which soon turns Into 
the night drive with search- 
lights; dinn er (the food and 
wine always four-star stan- 
dard); and a very early night 
in your all-mod-cons 
thatched cottage overlooking 
the river. You are awakened 
by the dawn chorus of the 
birds - and the prospect of 
more of the same. (Walking 
around at night is not 
encouraged as there are no 
fences.) 

It is a sordid point, but you 
are paying good money so 
they make sure you find the 
animals. Which is why you 
are there. You will probably 
return, bank manager or no. 
■ lnyati Game Lodge reserva- 
tions: PO Box 38838. Booysens 
2016. S Africa : (011-493 0755; 
fax 011-493 0837). 


TRAVEL 


2S 111 « 

limate 


* *•' 
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FINANCIAL times 


WEEKEND APRIL 6/APRIL 7/APRIL S 1996 


MOTORING / SPORT 


Road Test 


Executive cars that 






jn* sl 


are equal but different 

Stuart Marshall compares the virtues of three leading luxury marques 


•m r — 



f -- : 


*<■?? 


i.: s-'WiX- 


lien 






I s 

Oil '■ 


T hree cars have been 
named by British 
motoring magazines 
in the past year as 
the best luxury 
executive saloon: the Jaguar 
XJ6. the Mercedes-Benz 
E -Class and the BMW 5-Series. 
But only six weeks after one 
respected monthly had 
switched the crown from the 
XJ6 to the new E-Class, it 
deposed the Mercedes in favour 
of the new BMW 5-Series, long 
before this was due to go on 
sale in the UK. 

It is all good clean fun - but 
is it relevant? Do managing 
directors swap their Jaguars 
for Mercedes and then, almost 
before finding out what all the 


knobs are for. realise their mis- 
take and order BMWs? Of 
course not In the real world 
there are Jaguar people, Mer- 
cedes people and BMW people. 
For the most part they stay 
with the marque they like. 
Only a small minority - the 
trade puts it at about 15 per 
cent - flits from one to 
another. At the heart of the 
matter is a simple truth: XJ6. 
E-Class and 5-Series are all 
hi ghly covetable cars, but they 
are different. 

Jaguar users put up with 
some lack of passenger and 
boot space but glory in the Jer- 
mvn Street ambience of a tra- 
ditional British interior. One 
cannot get sentimental about 



Jaguar drivers refish the traditional British ambience of the car's interior 









Rallying / John Griffiths 

A safari like 


no other 


T he vulture redefined 
the boundaries of opti- 
mism. Tommi Maki- 
nen was not only alive 
but wearing a crash helmet 
and driving his 300 horsepower 
Mitsubishi Lancer rally car 
when the bird dropped in for 
lunch, via the car's roof vents, 
and instead became the 
lunched. 

Wiping blood and feathers 
from car and overalls. Makiuen 
could reflect that the East 
Africa Safari Rally, due to fin- 
ish in Nairobi tomorrow night, 
is indeed different - as Kenya's 
home-grown safari veterans so 
proudly insist - from any 
other on the 14-round world 
rally championship calendar. 

So. too. could Colin McRae, 
the diffident Scotsman who is 
reigning world rally champion. 
Today he. co-driver Derrick 
Ringer and their Prodrive 
Subaru were competing in the 
second leg of the 3.000km mar- 
athon - so far. to rivals’ relief, 
without recourse to the spear 
awarded as part of McRae's ini- 
tiation ns a Masai warrior at a 
colourful Nairobi ceremony. 

Even Ford team manager 
John Taylor does not sound 
convinced by his own assertion 
that ihe safari is “just a rally 
like any other". 

His own team. too. is not tak- 
ing his words wholly seriously. 
The daunting logistics of mov- 
ing men and machinery' 
around the world are common 
to all world championship ral- 
lies. suggests team coordina- 
tor Trevor Godden. It Is when 
the cars head into the unfor- 
giving Kenyan bush that simi- 
larity with other events ends. 

As if to back the Godden 
view, two Peugeots skid to a 
halt after their own pre-rally 
reconnaissance. David Horsey 
and Angus Leckie ore both 
Kenyans: veterans of not just 
the Safari but rallies globally. 
“Bloody hell." mutters Horsey, 
“we’ve just done 100km and 
they were worse than the 
entire London-Sydney mara- 
thon." 

Horsey and Leckie have 
encountered a road which has 
been washed away. When the 
rains come, such hazards 
appear without warning. With 
large straying game they are 
the rally's most-feared feature. 
Unlike the works Ford drivers. 
Carlos Sainz and the veteran 
Swedish maestro Stig Blomq- 
vtst. Horsey and the rest of the 
“Kenya cowboys” - the domes- 
tic privateers - have no heli- 
copters riding shotgun above 
to warn of pending disaster. 

Sainz and Blomqvist have 
one each. So do most of the 
other works teams. And it is 
the helicopters which most 


starkly symbolise the passing 
of the ‘'old" Safari. Conceived 
43 years ago as a non-stop bash 
through the bush to mark 
Queen Elizabeth ITs corona- 
tion. the Safari was. for 30 
years, a test as much of sta- 
mina as of speed. 

Gunnar Palm, who co-drove 
the Finn Hannu Mikkola’s 
Escort lo victory in 1972. 
recalls that "a fast average 
speed then was maybe 60 miles 
per hour and we would drive 
non-stop for 36 hours. Now 
they return to Nairobi every 
night to sleep. But the average 
speed - the average - will be 
100 miles per hour plus. It is 
indeed a different world." 

It is a different world, too. in 
terms of costs. Few teams talk 
budget details. Most acknowl- 
edge that costs are rising fast 
towards - indeed may already 
have reached - the financial 
stratosphere of Formula One 
motor racing. 

The World Rally Teams 
Association has been formed, 
much like FOCA. the construc- 
tors’ association of Formula 
One, to negotiate with air 
freight companies from a posi- 
tion or communal strength. 
With a single freighter unload- 
ing eight rally cars and a pair 
of helicopters, and airliners 
disgorging works teams each 
counted by the dozen, it is 
clear there is much on which 
to negotiate. 

The costs, says Palm, “are 
going mad". But there is little, 
if any. sign of resentment 
among local drivers. Partly, 
that is in recognition of the 
safari's public relations role in 
a country where the economy, 
now badly fraying, grows more 
dependent on tourism. Partly, 
too, it is recognition that the 
doughtiest Kenya cowboy can 
no longer fight helicopters, bot- 
tomless pockets and cutting- 
edge technology. 

Yet it is still not quite that 
simple. The Nairobi bookies 
may have been quoting 
Britain's McRae as favourite 
but the dark horse at the 
starting ramp was Kenyan Ian 
Duncan. 

Unusually, Duncan was 
given a works Toyota drive 
three years ago and promptly 
came third. In 2994 he won out- 
right 

His mount in this year's 
Safari is still a Toyota Celica 
GT4 and it is a works car in all 
but name: it is entered instead 
under the name ot Toyota 
Kenya. Duncan thus remained 
in a position to be a lonely 
upholder of Kenyan honour. 
Even so. with Safari condi- 
tions. nothing is ever certain. 
The Safari can still be just a 
lottery. 


Mercedes, a make which 
majors in bank vault standards 
of strength, safety and durabil- 
ity. Younger management-level 
motorists are drawn to BMWs. 
As a senior BMW person said 
the other day: “If you want to 
drive from here to eternity and 
back, buy a Mercedes. But if 
you want to enjoy yourself, 
have a BMW." 

Last month I drove a Merc- 
edes-Benz E300D automatic 
1,250 miles i'2.QQ0km) to Geneva 
and back. It held a near silent 
85mph/l37kph on the auto- 
route. dealt effortlessly with 
alpine passes, felt rock solid at 
all times and achieved just 
over 35mpg (8.07 litres/iookm) 
of (tieseL It rode a shade more 
resifiently. made less road 
noise and bad more comfort- 
able seats, but was otherwise 
typical of all the Mercedes cars 
1 have grown to respect over 
the years. It was not an excit- 
ing car. just totally competent 
and confidence inspiring. 

Last week I tried two of the 
new BMW 5-Series in Spain. 


New and old 5-Series are essen- 
tially similar, though the sheer 
harmony of the new one's 
looks makes it the most ele- 
gant saloon BMW has pro- 
duced. It manages to appear a 
little smaller than before bat is 
slightly longer, wider and 
lower and - going against the 
safer-has-to-be-heavier trend - 
is lighter by 35kg. 

Some weight has been saved 
by using al uminium for many 
chassis components normally 
made from steel. 

Initially. British buyers are 
being offered in-line, 6-cylinder 
petrol engines of 2.5-litres (in a 
model confusingly badged as 
the 523il and 2. 8- litres capacity. 
The 2.5-Iitre produces 170hp 
compared with the 2.8-litre 
engine's I93hp. Both develop 
ma ximum torque (in other 
words, they pull hardest) at 
modest revolutions, the 2.5- 
litre particularly so. 

Both have split personalities. 
While eager to spin musically 
up to 5,000rpm and over, they 
are muscular in mid-range. So 












1 . j' ^ j 


Tif 


■»\\ 




The new BMW 5-Series: more advanced, better equipped and cheape than the model It replaces, it is Hie most elegant saloon BMW has produced* 


traffic driving is relaxed, there 
are fuel economy benefits and 
ample pick-up in fourth and 
fifth gears. 

Other engines will become 
available later in the year. 
They are a 150hp. 2.0-litre, 
6-cylinder for the entry model 
5201 and 35-litre and 4.4-litre 
VSs. BMW's class-leading 2.5- 
litre. 143hp, 6-cylinder turbo- 
diesel in the new 5-Series has 
been tuned to pull even harder 
at very low speeds before the 
turbocharger cuts in. Its torque 


is the same as that of the 2.5-11- 
tre petrol unit but Is devel- 
oped at tittle more than half 
the engine speed. 

At present only five-speed 
manual gears are available, 
but five-speed automatics are 
on their way, for petrol and 
diesel models alike. All new 
5-Series cars have a traction 
control system to curb wheel- 
spin and improve stability on 
slippery surfaces. 

The long, winding ascent 
from the Costa del Sol to 


Honda on the beautifully engi- 
neered C339 could have been 
designed to let the BMWs show 
off the precision of their han- 
dling, sure-footed roadholding 
and silken power delivery. The 
5231 1 drove was not air condi- 
tioned but an open sunroof 
caused no buffeting and hardly 
.any wind roar at speeds of up 
to 60mph/S6kpb- 
Buyers of luxury executive 
cars seek value for money. 
Despite the technical advan- 
tages and better-quality equip- 


ment - at last BMW throws in 
a six-speaker radiocassette - 
all but nue of the new 5-Series 
cars are cheaper than the mod- 
els they replace. 

Prices start at £22,950 for the 
520i -So per cent reduction - 
and go up to £41.930 (a rise of 
5.4 per cent) for the 5401. Most 
BMW 5-Series sales in Britain 
are SE ('special equipment) ver- 
sions with standard air condi- 
tioning. These will cost 
between £>4250 (5201 SE) and 
£29,320 (528i SE)- ' 




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WEEKEND FT XI 


SPORT 


The Varsity Boat Race 



on the 
Tideway 

Phillip HaDiday previews the 
contest with a look at who will 
control this year's battle 




he I42nd varsity 
boat race for the 
Beefeater Trophy 
today at 3.30 pm is 
likely to be decided 
by two men: the coxes. This 
year’s duel is expected to be 
close. If so, the person with the 
rudder strings and the line 
steered are all-important 
The 4/4 -mile race on the 
stretch of the Thames from 
Putney to Mortlake, known as 
the Tideway, is like no other. 
Most races are in a straight 


— - rt-fc©*. «TA. Jo - — — ‘ - :• T 

Pu&ng their weight Oxford put in some hard work on the Thames near Barnes 


" r" \' c 


line with little advantage 
gained from the effects of the 
tide. But the Oxford and Cam- 
bridge boat race has three 
bends and a quirky stream tha t 
fluctuates down the course. 

The boat that starts on the 
Middlesex station has the 
advantage of the first Fulham 
bend but it is small and the 
Surrey crew has the inside of 
the next large Chiswick bend. 
However, if the stream is 
strong it may be better 
not to cut the first corner 


where the stream is slacks - . 

The weather can compound 
the coxes’ problems. For 
instance, if the water is rough 
the cox may seek calmer condi- 
tions in the lee of the hank 
Add to this the need to moti- 
vate and drive the crew and 
the coxes’ lot becomes a tough 
one. The cox is the unsung 
hero; rarely given credit for 
victory, often castigated in 
defeat 

This year’s coxes are poles 
apart but have at least one 


thing in common - aggression. 

The Dark Blue cox, Todd 
Bristol, from the US. cosed for 
four years at Harvard Univer- 
sity on the river Charles. The 
Charles is placid compared 
with the Tideway. “The river 
in London is Hannting at fir st 
1 wasn't used to the stream but 
for the past two weeks I have 
been living and breathing the 
Tideway,” he says. 

The Oxford «»mp have taken 
Bristol out on the river in a 
launch with a Thames boat- 


man. He has talked Kris to Chester has raced on the 

through the way the rive Tideway 25 times, albeit in the 
behaves, the ebbs and flow opposite direction to the var- 
the varyin g conditions fro ®ity boat race, 
day to day. Bristol has thr “The Tideway is special. It is 

big, but somewhere out there 


fellow countrymen and a Ca> 
dian. Jeremy Howick. in 
crew and all agree the mo 
Tideway was a problem 
first 

The Light Blue cox. F 1 
Whyman. has more Tid-y 
experience. The first year 11 " 
omist from Peterbouse 
cut his teeth at King's P 0 *- 


is the fastest course. And I will 
find it It is not well dofingd 
and not necessarily in the mid- 
dle,” he says. 

Whyman. who dieted hard 

and ran the T^ndrm Marathon 

to get down to 8 stone from his 
normal 9*4 stone, coxes aggres- 
sively and will push the crew 



of private 


$ 


Telford is hot only situated in 
the heart of jLnspoilt Shropshire 
countryside, i j is also at the very 
heart of Britain's communications 

network. 

It is lo/ated near its own 

motorway, tie M54, which gives 
it fast aciss to the national 
motorway System putting two 
thirds of th UK population within 
four hours faumey time 

And nj less than 15 UK ports 
are withii ?4Vi freight hours, with 
Liverpool Freeport, Britain’s 
ieral cargo port, only two 

Ingham International 
lirport /just 45 minutes away and 



runs smoq 



a new rapid transit rail system link 
will soon put Amsterdam, Brussels, 
Frankfurt, Paris and many other 
important European Centres even 
closer to Telford. 

Closer to home is the fact that 
Telford's 800km of fast roads mean 
your home in the idyllic Shropshire 
countryside could be minutes from 
the ample parking provided in 
Telford’s business areas. 

If you’re considering reloca- 
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It could put your company on the 
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Call freephone 0800 16 2000 or 
complete the coupon for further 
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i .. 



and the rules to tbe limit. 

So the umpire will have an 
interesting ride as he tries to 
keep the crews apart. There 
has never been a disqual- 
ification in the Blue Boat 
race. 

Whyman says be will play on 
the crew’s pride. “Some of the 
boys are p r im a darmas, I will 
play on that. Remind them of 
the six-months' training. Ins ult 
Oxford and their president 

“1 will be nervous but I must 
remain calm- Tbe crew doesn't 
want a cox screaming.” 

Oxford's Bristol has had to 
change his style of coxing 
since leaving the Charles. “I 
had to relearn my coxing 
vocabulary and get used to not 
coaching as much because at 
Oxford we have so many 
coaches.” he says. 

“I’m going to do what it 
takes to win. 1 will have to be 
aggressive off the start" 

Oxford have one old Blue, 
Rob Clegg, as well as the large 
overseas contingent. In con- 
trast most of the Cambridge 
crew are British undergradu- 
ates with one old Blue. Miles 
Barnett, and five from last 
year's impressive reserve crew, 
Goldie. 

The preparation in the final 


Fans rtreon’P* 

week will prove to be crucial. 
Oxford was coached by Dan 
Topolski who oversaw 16 wins 
in 17 years between 1978 and 
1992. and who returned last 
year to try to turn the Light 
Blue tide of three consecutive 
wins. 

“The foreigners are a great 
bunch this year, sparky, fun. 
challenging and full of balls,” 
he says. It has been a long haul 
over the year to mould the dif- 
ferent styles of rowing and the 
resulting bruised egos into one 
cohesive unit. Topolski says 
that was the biggest challenge. 
The final polished product is 
only just being prepared. 

In the final week. Cambridge 
handed over coaching to New 
Zealand’s national coach. 
Harry Mahon. Mahon, who 
kept in touch with Cambridge 
throughout the training, 
admits this is a less experi- 
enced squad. “Cambridge, 
although not as fast as last 
year, have got a high power-to- 
weight ratio and the stroke is 
deceptively strong." 

He agrees the coxes will be 
crucial. For the first time the 
two boat dubs have nominated 
a charity, the Imperial Cancer 
Research Fund, to benefit from 
the proceeds raised. 


Drugs in Sport / Pat Butcher 

Litigation 
is the name 
of the game 


A fter a dispute at an 
Olympic Games ear- 
lier this century, 
when British influ- 
ence was greater than nowa- 
days, a foreign delegate is 
reputed to have said: “So, Bri- 
tannia waives the rules 
again.” 

That's how it might seem to 
many after the recent decision 
by the normally hardline 
Internationa] Amateur Athlet- 
ics Federation to absolve 
Diane Modahl, the 800m run- 
ner, of any drags guilt To oth- 
ers, it will be a signal to set 
the lawyers among the labora- 
tory equipment 
Modahl’s appeal, against 
procedural irregularities dur- 
ing a test in Lisbon two years 
ago, bad been first dismissed 
and then upheld by the British 
federation. In spite of this, 
Modahl is suing for £480,000 
for the time that she has had 
to wait for vindication, since 
she was ejected from the Com- 
monwealth Games on the 
verge of her 800m title 
defence. 

The British federation has 
already spent close to £100,000 
defending tbe case and, should 
Modahl succeed in her litiga- 
tion, the flock of sponsors 
already flying away from ath- 
letics worldwide will migrate 
even farther. 

Modahl was fortunate in 
having several doctors/chem- 
ists in the UK willing to do 
what, in effect, qualified as 
biochemical research on her 
behalf. As legislators against 
drugs in sport have always 
pointed out in frustration, 
there is little documentation 
on file effects and dangers of a 
huge intake of "sports drags”, 
since no one in their right 
mind would dose up oa some 
of the stuff (such as bovine 
steroids) that competitors are 
taking clandestinely. 

But demands for compensa- 
tion are as worldwide as drug 
taking. It was the Botch Rey- 
nolds case which first raised 
the issne. The 400m world 
record holder was banned for 
two years in 1990, but went to 
the US Supreme Court, argu- 
ing similar procedural irregu- 
larities to Modahl, plus restric- 
tion of trader Be was awarded 
827.3m but. after the IAAF 
employed a Washington lobby- 
ing firm, the regulations con- 
cerning professional sports 
were amended, and the case 
was overturned. 

The German experience 
since reunification has been a 
minefield. As in other areas of 
society, west Germans have 


done everything they can to 
discredit the former East Ger- 
mans. The eagerness with 
which Bathrin Krabbe. tbe 
1991 world sprint champion, 
has been pursued by tbe new, 
west German dominated 
administration hints at victim- 
isation. Yet the German feder- 
ation recently agreed that she 
had the right to sue the IAAF. 

German civil courts will not 
uphold drug bans for longer 
than two years, while the 
IAAF ban is four years. The 
longer censure was intro- 
duced, principally at the 
behest of the British in 1991. 
Id tbe first big rebuff of his 
presidency, Primo Nebiolo’s 
move to reintroduce two-year 
bans was kicked out in Gdte- 
borg at last year's World 
Championships. 

And there is more to come 
from Germany. Thanks to 
Werne Franke, a leading bio- 
chemist, who is married to a 
former East German athlete, 
Brigitte Berendonck. the cou- 
ple have pursned East German 
drugs doctors/administrators 
with an intellectual ven- 
geance. There was a general 
amnesty announced for all 
athletes after reunification. 
But Berendonck published a 
book based on East German 
sports files detailing the drugs 
fed to leading athletes over the 
past 20 years. 

They took Olympic long- 
jump champion, Heike Drechs- 
ler, to court when she was 
unwise enough to say at her 
post-Olympic press conference 
that Berendonck was lying in 
respect of her drugs intake. 
Berendonck won. 

Hie ample claim that their 
campaign is similar to the 
post-war pursuit of Nazis, a 
demand for admission of guilt 
They have taken up the case of 
former weightlifter Roland 
Schmidt who had to have 
drug-induced breasts removed 
surgically three years ago. 

Schmidt lost a civil case 
against his former sports “doc- 
tors” last week, bnt it amid go 
to the Supreme Court. 

Schmidt has duly filed an 
appeal, which will not be lost 
on the IAAF and sports admin- 
istrators everywhere. The 
IAAF says it is not liable for 
national federation costs in 
drag cases. That remains to be 
seen, when the Modahl case 
gets under way in earnest 

That athletics takes the rap 
for every other sport which is 
lukewarm on drugs legislation 
is undeniable. Bnt athletics, as 
the main Olympic discipline, 
cannot ran away from it 








S' 




XII WEEKEND FT 


FINANCIAL TIMES WEEKEND APRIL 6/APRIL 7/APR11- * 


ARTS 


The Diaghil 
of derring-d 

Nigel Andrews talks to film director John Woo, wh< 
make one forget the bloodletting and think of 


. • • - v « . - 


8Stfp|| 


movies 

let 



J ohn Woo, who attained near- 
mythical status in Hong Kong 
as an action director before 
migrating to Hollywood, sits 
in his 20th Century Fox office 
Fielding my questions about 
screen violence. 

Just why does it have such popu- 
lar appeal I ask? Especially in our 
own decade of Reservoir Dogs. Pulp 
Fiction. Desperado and indeed 
Woo's own first American him. the 
mayhem-intensive Jean Claude Van 
Damme actioner Hard Target. Is 
violence a movie equivalent of rock 
music? 

"Yes. yes. I think so," says the 
white-shirted, imma culate Woo. “I 
know that in my case young audi- 
ences seem to Find some message, 
some extreme excitement in the 
action. They find something beyond 
violence. It becomes almost like a 
poetry of action.” 

Brought over to Tinseltown on a 
tide of praise from such as Scorsese 
and Tarantino, who a dmir ed his 
high-style Asian thrillers lA Better 
Tomorrow. The Killers), Woo has 
just completed his second American 
film Broken Arrow. The Travolta- 
starring military thriller, opening in 
Britain next week, earned back its 
S60m budget in one brisk month in 
the US. Now Woo sits in America, 
where he has obtained "permanent 
resident” status, trying to ensure 
that cultural transplanting does not 
mean cultural deflowerment 
“My First movie here was a 
shock.” he says. “In Hong Kong 
everything is simple. You have one 
or two meetings with a studio or 
finance company to go through 
story, cast and budget and that’s it 
They don't even want to see any 


footage till the movie is made. Here 
I've never known so many meet- 
ings. Six months 1 went on meeting 
and meeting for Hard Target*." 

Even on Broken Arrow, whose 
rushes so impressed Fox that they 
raised the budget from an initial 
$47m. Woo says he struggled to 
adjust to a movie culture obsessed 
with cost and control. 

“I would have nine or ten days for 
an action sequence in Hong Kong. 
Here they only give me three or 
four. They think it is easy work! 
But it is only easy if you want the 
ordinary and conveutionaL" 

Which is not what this Diaghilev 
of derring-do is about. In a Woo film 
human bodies soar and fiy across 
the screen, gunshots pepper out sur- 
real tattoos, furniture self-destructs, 
banisters act as ski slopes, and the 
screen is so rhythmic, so kaleido- 
scopic that you forget about blood- 
letting and think of it as ballet 

f Bruce Lee broke all action 
movie rules and barriers in 
front of the screen. Woo has 
done the same from the direc- 
tor's chair. Or he would have 
if be ever sat down in one. 

“1 work like a painter,” he says. “I 
never pre-planned action scenes in 
Hong Kong. Fd gather the cast and 
crew in the morning and say, 
‘Okay, this scene is about two 
undercover cops ambushed by 20. 30 
guys in a restaurant. So 1 need that 
many stunt guys and costumes.’ 

“Then I look about. There’s a 
table - what can l do with it? A 
banister - ah, maybe the hero will 
slide down it shooting with two 
guns at the same time. And I walk 
round the set and everyone goes so 


I e wind blow, 
e ‘possessed’ 
lact it out for 
tile or are 
Jence will 
I sboot 
3ur or five 
?ed, some 
and style 


silent you can 

“And then I 
by the scene. I st; 
everyone. If the: 
excited, I know 
respond the same wl 
the whole scene 
cameras, some f; 
slow, to cover every 
I might want 

“It keeps everyone ^ 
interested. It keeps thturprised, 

If they’re tired like a d\ t the end 
of a day. they still s^ h j oha 
that would be great. o^ t wou |d 
be even better, let's do 

Now. though. Woo %jt the 
land of power lunches aWoject 
development”. And he hip coun- 
tered another impediment^ 
of in Hong Kong’s actio^ ema 
censorship. 

“They take violence v^ seri _ 
ously in America” he says, 
bow he was required to 
Target to avoid a restrict-^cn 
certificate. “I was told to losl 
cent of the gunfire.” 

Is he surprised? Surely we^t 
expect a violence-ridden o 
like the US to get touchy ut 
images that could stimulate^ 
violence? 

“But the violence in my mo 1 
like a cartoon, you know', or 
dancing.” says Woo. “For some 
pie too. violence on screen is a 
of fantasy or wish-fulfilment, 
something they want to do in 
life but can't. In the real wo; 
there is so much crime, so mui 
unfairness. 

“People find that the law can' 



' "/ 

John Woo: Young audiences seem to find some message, some extreme excitement in the action, something beyond vtotenee. It becomes almost like a poetry of action 


\ -VO’- 

v3 ./■ v \ .v i 

***$&%;■ 

' .“%4Uc 


protect everyone and the system’ 
so bad and the government can’ 
clamp down on crime. So they're 


frustrated. And in a film when the 
hero kills or beat up the bad guy. It 
seems be stands for them! I’ve seen 
people cheer and jump up in a cin- 
ema." 

So Woo would hesitate before 

m aking a Film in which evil tri- 
umphed? 

“I would do it if it was an inter- 
esting script But I try to emphasise 
that justice will eventually win." 

It is not a moral vision shared by 


movies today. Thanks to Tar- 
itino, Stone and company, we a re 
Dunded by lovable psychotics 


asserting their higher charm before 
a floundering law-and-order system. 

The “charm" of evil, as it hap- 
pens. is central to Broken Arrow. 
The film was scripted by Graham 
Yost, who dreamed up Dennis Hop- 
per’s charismatic bomber in Speed. 
The new film's anti-hero is a mis- 
sile-stealing air force pilot, played 
with grace abounding by a John 
Travolta fresh from magnetic hood- 
lum roles in Pulp Fiction and Get 
Shorty. 

Woo admits that the devil has the 
best tunes in Broken Arrow. Pre- 


view audiences rooted for Travolta 
right up to his do-or-die last scene. 
“He makes the character very 
human but also gives him such 
great presence,'* says Woo. “He's a 
ch a rming baddie, an angel with an 
evil eye." 

But justice and democracy finally 
triumph, as commercial cinema 
would like us to believe they do in 
most parts of the world. There is 
one place, though, whose future not 
even Hollywood could light with 
rosy filters. As a Hong Kong emi- 
grant, is Woo worried about his 


own homeland, as the countdown to 
communism threatens the freedom 
of both its people and its cinema? 

“1 am worried. But 1 am hopeful 
too. Hong Kong film. I always feel, 
is a bit like an orphan. It has never 
had help from any government, it's 
had to survive by its own wits. 

"After 1997, when they know- 
more about the new system and pol- 
icy, the film people will find a wa\ 
to fit in. to flourish, to keep making 
movies. Hong Kong people" - he 
gives a broad, conspiratorial smile - 
“are very tricky, you know!" 


Some enchanted even 


Alastair Macaulay is bewitched by 
of ‘A Portrait of Edith 


Irene Worth’s rendition 
Wharton* 


B riskly, the great actress Irene 
Worth takes the Almeida Theatre 
stage and. speaking, begins to 
bewitch. She is 80 this year, and 
sometimes, even in mid-sentence, she can 
show you old age. But her charm, which is 
profound and complex and which floods 
the theatre at once, is richly mixed with 
youthfulness. Her voice has you immedi- 
ately in thrall, but in due course there are 
moments when she pauses - again, some- 
times in mid-sentence - and you just hang 
gratefully on her luminous face. London 
sees more great actors per annum than 
any other city, but enchantment like this 
occurs even here very seldom. 

During just this one week at the 
Almeida, she has presented three different 
programmes: I write after the first, A Por- 
trait of Edith Wharton. Standing at a lec- 
tern. in a crushed-gold gown of a colour 
somewhere between saffron, peach and 
honey, she reads to us for 90 minutes: but 
she knows tbe text so well that it is only 
there to guide her memory. At uo moment 
do we feel any dichotomy between Worth 
and Wharton. Tbe ranee and artistry of 
the one is channelled into serving the 
range and artistry of tbe other, so that one 
is tempted afterwards to speak of Wharton 
alone. (The sensual audacity of that pas- 
sage about incest! the hilarity- of that story 
about Henry- Janies asking the way!) But it 
is Worth, not Wharton, who is 80 this year, 
and she deserves attention. 

Her voice - I wish I had a recording - is 
all music, and there are many musicians 
who should envy what sbe seems to do as 
if without thought. The endings of 
plirases, for example. Actors are generally 
taught to avoid bringing sentences down 
as they eud - newsreaders are parodied 
for doing it - but she does it often, and 
beautifully, because she has so completely 
a sense or finish. But her phrasing goes 
beyond each sentence, because the 
thought does. 

There are astonishing sudden decelera- 
tions in mid-line without stopping, like 
smooth transitions from fourth gear to 
first: seamless joins of one sentence to the 
next: and a wealth of delicate but lucid 
dynamic markings, as when she say's of 
Marcel Proust, with the lightest of mar- 
cato and staccato emphasis on the final 
three descending words, “I could not seek 
out this rare. pale, moth." The voice, gen- 
tle. is full of changing tone and colour, 
and sometimes adds a haunting nuance for 
a reason one cannot explain, as when, 
while explaining quietly that the date was 
June 1914 she fills the word “June" with a 
darker colour from the chest 
While you listen, you look. The dark 






/ 




be Tate acquired one 
of the finest collec- 
tions of contemporary 
art this week - 320 
works by such leading Ameri- 
can artists as Warhol, Twom- 
bly. Stella and Nauman, plus 
big German names such as 
Beuys, Richter and Baselitz. 
But the Tate will not actually 
own these works: it will be giv- 
ing wall space to the collection 
of the German automotive 
machine tool manufacturer, 
Josef Froehlich. 

Each year, for four years, a 
group of paintings will arrive 
at Millbank, starting next 
month with Richter and Nau- 
man. plus works by Polke and 
Carl Andre. Warhol, with por- 
traits of Jackie Kennedy. Elvis 
and Liz Taylor, goes on show 
in May 1998. 

There is, of course, a Bank- 
side angle to this. The Tate 
will open its gallery of modern 
art there in 2000. It would be 
surprising if Froehlich did not 
want to see his paintings on 
display in such grand sur- 
roundings. Nick Serota. the 
Tata's director, is currently 
negotiating with many collec- 
tors nterested in making gifts 
and Dans to fill Bankside. The 
new museum will boost this 
new private-public way of dis- 
playig art, so important in the 
modfrn and contemporary 
___ field where museums can 
rarely compete with private 
.-•'uAt-aS ■= -’ buyffs in acquiring the mas- 
ferpkes. 

Tip Tate will miss its end of 
deadline for raising the 
it needs to match the Mil- 
urn Commiss ion’s £50m 
for Bankside, but enough 
flay is in place to ensure 
the conversion work on 
ide has started. 


Off the Wall/ Antony Thomcroft 

Tate goes 
for loans 


Irene Worth: her voice has one iniinediatiety In thrall 


look of the eyes against the light face and 
pale-fair hair is the most obviously delec- 
table thing about her - the eyes dance - 
but everything soon becomes compelling: 
the prominent cheeks, the way the mouth 
returns to a line of repose or sometimes 
twitches the cheeks upwards, the sure line 
of the eyebrows, and more. 

And yet how Irene Worth sounds or 
looks really is beside tbe point. What 
affected me most - and what were, surely, 
closest to Wharton - were the moments 
when she suddenly became so suffused 
with Edith Wharton’s emotion that she 
had not to express it but to suppress it 
Whether it is the memory of a loveless 
marriage which drove both her and her 


husband into breakdowns, or of a later 
love-affair ("To me it was a... devasta- 
tion"). the extraordinary humanity of the 
moment lies in the way she tries not to 
indulge it, to express H with as much 
restraint as true feeling will permit Of a 
father’s tongue on his daughter's nipples: 
“Sucking them with a tender gluttony”. At 
other times she makes a sentence thrilling 
by indicating that mere words cannot suf- 
fice. “Marrakesh" Gifting eyes to look 
above her for a moment and to pause after 
the ravishing sound of the name itself) “is 
the great market of the South”. 

Yes, ravishing. 

Almeida Theatre, Nl. Ends April 6. 


The government is in retreat 
on its insistence that, lottery 
money can only be used for 1 
capital projects in the arts. 
This week heritage secretary 
Virginia Bottomley repeated 
her January statement that lot- 
tery money can go towards 
training young artists: and 
Lord Gowrie, chairman of the 
Arts Council of England, 
reported that he was looking at 
ways to widen access to the 
arts for tbe young and the poor 
by using lottery funds to 
finance touring and reducing 
ticket prices. Soon there will 
be an announcement on lottery 
money for commissioning new 
plays, music, artworks, etc. 

The government, for elec- 
toral reasons, is keen for the 
Arts Council to move rapidly, 
but there are some massive 
hurdles to overcame, not least 
over the money for new com- 
missions. The current idea is 
that tbe copyright to any play, 
overture, book, or work of art 
created this way should rest 
with the lottery fund. The 
implications for copyright law 
are tremendous. 

★ 

Next year the government win 
give way on the big one. The 
stabilisation fund will be 
revealed as an endowment 
fond in another name. Arts 
companies with deficits will 


have them wiped out and 
replaced by a nest egg if they 
1 pledge to operate within bud- 
get in future. 

The downside to this good 
news is that it will enable the 
Treasury to reduce the annual 
grant to the Arts Council for 
revenue funding, and when all 
tbe UK’s major arts projects 
are fn their new lottery built 
homes, with their endowments 
in place, it will be impossible 
to justify the arts receiving 
£300m a year from the lottery. 
* 

There has been one big loser 
from the lottery - the Founda- 
tion for Sport and the Arts. 
The foundation may have been 
born for an ignoble reason - 
an attempt by the pools compa- 
nies to delay the introduction 
of the lottery by setting up 
their own source of arts and 
sports funding - but it proved 
a tremendous success. In five 
years more than 10.000 arts 
organisations have shared well 
over £l00m in grants. 

But the lottery has dented 
the revenue of the pools com- 
panies, and consequently the 
sum they hand over to the 
foundation. From a peak of 
£6&n a year, of which the arts 
received a third, Grattan Endi- 
cott which runs the founda- 
tion, anticipates this year an 
income of nearer £45xn and is 


he Holy Week's cover 
was Hamish Macbeth: 
for Easter, the resur- 
rection celebrated is 
■ntly that of Sir David 
orough. I notice such 
as the Radio Times cov- 
toy with my morning 
Gambaccini (a bland 
culated to make you 
ore by providing mini- 
ihment and flavour). 

io Times soft-pedals 

the cYa^ festival of the coun- 
try’s jorlty religion, perhaps 
to Pfent columnist Polly 
Toyna having another funny 
turn. V recently complained 
that jigidus programmes 


Radio/Martin Hoyle 

Soft-pedalling 
on Holy Week 



New 'fork, Summer 1954. 

One man is dead! 

The life of another 
is at stake. 





Vieras: Edwards ar.c Ca.-o.-e Winter 
.'ter: Sni.-s! a:.-. Vic 

KEVLN D1GNAM 
ROBERT EAST 
TOM' HAYGARTH 
TIM J ITALY 
b MAURICE KAUFMANN 
A; ALAN NlacNAUGHTAN 
, :r DOUGLAS McLERRAN 
^ STUART KAYNER 

CHRISTOPHER SIMON 
PETER VAUGHAN 
TIMOTHY WEST 
KEVIN WHATEIY 

HAROLD PINTER 


JjF 


»>SE’S 


111 

f US 


ff 


PREVIEWS FROM II APRIL - BOX office ;c , 
OPENS 22 APRIL 0.171. 36 I73l‘ 

COMEDY THEATRE TKKL'T.'iisrnR 

0171 344 44 ,,,,,. 


were made by the religious. 
She should listen to Radio 3 of 
a morning for reassurance: 
sometimes the music pro- 
grammes are presented by the 
unmusical, it even managed to 
put out an opera based on the 
Old Testament without appar- 
ently rumbling it: billed as 
“suicide, murder, striptease, 
decapitation . . . Just some of 
the ingredients of an action- 
packed opera”. Salome, of 
course, from the New York Met 
on Saturday, and rather inter- 
estingly conducted by Donald 
Runnicles, a Scot better known 
abroad than in Britain. 

Holy Week, as the media 
seem nervous of calling it has 
been marked by tbe start of a 
fascinating new series. Science 
and Wonders (Radio 4, Wednes- 
day). It opened with bright 
nine-year-olds sounding rather 
more Intelligent than a group 
of faintly adenoidal students: 
two groups asked their opinion 
of tbe existence of God. The 
first programme dealt with cos- 
mology , the creation, bangs big 
and little. A nice lady astrono- 
mer referred to the universe as 
“mind -boggling] y large" and 


faintly reminded me of Pam 
Ayers. The believers were on 
the whole a more sympathetic 
lot than tbe sceptics. But then 
they know that faith by defini- 
tion does not need proof, while 
sceptics need to disprove it but 
cannot A physical chemist 
from Lincoln College, Oxford, 
considered himself, uncharac- 
teristically for his breed, insig- 
nificant but more in charac- 
ter. thought the rest of the 
world should realise how insig- 
nificant it Is too. An American 
voice said complexity, not size, 
was important; and sounded 
like Paul Gambaccini. Or per- 
haps things are just getting to 
'me. 

Quantum physics were 
touched on in the same breath 
as Tommy Cooper (“Just like 
that!"). It was a stimulating 
opening, pros and cons vigor- 
ously contending over the 
“extraordinary set of coinci- 
dences” that conspired to make 
life. Unless, as Lincoln College 
deflat] ngiy speculated, this 
universe is one of many, tum- 
bled into existence by a chance 
mixture of freak conditions. 

ft sounds like programme 


reducing its maximum awards 
from £150,000 to around 
£75,000. There is, however, 
some hope. A White Paper is 
promised which might lead to 
a reduction in betting tax and 
hence more money for the 
foundation. 

The foundation is also 
remarkably flexible. Unlike titp 
lottery, it has responded to the 
desperate need of arts compa- 
nies for revenue funding. The 
Spitalfields Festival has 
become its first such benefi- 
ciary, receiving £90,000 over 
three years. This money is 
intended to make good the loss 
of its grant from the crippled 
Barings Foundation. 

However, while the Founda- 
tion for Sport and the Arts has 
less money to distribute, tbe 
demands on it, which were 
running at 500 requests a 
wtek, are now under 200. So 
k^ep on applying. 

k’s. the German beer com- 
ly. is sticking with Artan- 
gel. the creators of site-specific 
ar. works, most famously 
Rachel Whiteread’s ■‘House" 
project iu East London. Beck's 
announced a £125.000 grant 
over four years this week, 
which will be matched by the 
groip's private patrons. “The 
Company of Angels". 

Etch angel will now be 
exported to give £300 a year 
but In return receives a work 
front, an artist commissioned 
by ijtangel. Its latest success 
was 'Robert Wilson's "H.G.” 
exhibition at the Clink Street 
vault, and for its next happegp 
ing r has commissioned tbe 
Mexican artist Gabriel Orozco, 
who ilans “transient encoun- 
ters vith forgotten places" 
arouul London this summer. 


planning. Or perhaps not. 
Strangr than Fiction, a series 
where vriters comment on die 
gospels fielded Melvyn Bragg 
so opportunely, just as his new 
novel ajout Celtic religion in 
the seventh century bits his 
fans, as to make one think 
there w>s some great intelli- 
gence btiind it all. On televi- 
rion BBtl produced Road to 
Golgotha presented In Corn- 
wall by he actor who plays 
Gus, the laranoid station bees 
.in Drop the Dead Donkey. 
When he .nnounced the scrip- 
tures to b about real people 
with real, eal feelings, almost 
moist-eyed in his luwiness, I 
wondered vhether the whole 
thing migh be a send-up. But 
no, he mee; people who have 
suffered, ben in trouble, and 
draws comprisons that 1 think 
faintly insuitog both to them 
and the scripires. 

Still, it is marginally livelier 
than some o'; the contributors 
to Stranger than Fiction. 
Jimmy McGvern explained 
the name “Fir” fas in his TV 
series Cracke) came from a 
Liverpool priet He told a rjfnr 
bling story bout his wife 
being sacked tom the support 
centre where tie worked and 
used phrases ke •‘crucifying 
mv wife", all C which would 
have had an ofeostvely ttivi- 
alising effect ha uot his dirge- 
like Scouse tons induced in 
me a mind - du thing somno- 
lence. This wasbroadcasting 
by a non-broadaster. Polly 
Toynbee should fc happy - 


K 



V v' 







l 



WEEKEND FT XIII 


* mil — -in 



financial TIMES 


WEEKEND APRIL 


6/ APRIL 7/APRIL S 1996 


4 



Although Ms bast was intermittent, it could be vay good: Gustave Ca flte botte 'a The Pont de L'Eiaupe’, 1878 


More than an amateur dilettante 

William Packer argues the case for Gustave Caillebotte, the ‘unknown* Impressionist 


T he centenary of 
Gustave Caille- 
botte’s death in 1894 
was celebrated by a 
Ml retrospective at 
the Grand Palais in Paris, 
which travelled an to 
and than to Lob Angles last 
summer. A ranch smaller ver- 
. sion of that show, but with 
■j, some additional loans, now 
comes to London and the Sack- 
ler Galleries of the Royal Acad- 
emy. Why the fuss? . 

The simple answer is that 
Caillebotte is known as an 
interesting figure of his .time, 
hut not generally as a painter, 
for which he Is remembered 
only by a few familiar, images- 
* - top-hatted men on balconies 
high above the grands boule- 
vards, a modem iron railway 
bridge,' workmen laying par- 
quet, a man and woman walk- 
1 ing beneath an umbrella in; the 
rain. While the huge “Paris 
Street in the Rain” from the 
Chicago Art Institute, with its 


dramatic perspective and stark 
silhouettes, does not travel to 
En gland. Geneva's iron “Pont 
de VEurope” does, along With 
one of the “Parquet Layers”, 
and enough else to give the 
range and flavour of the work. 

The truth is that at his best 
Caillebotte can be very good, 
but that best is intermittent, 
and his worst can be dreadful. 
At times be lakes a very odd 
view of human anatomy, espe- 
cially of arms — as on the man 
drying bimaelf after hfc bath 
and hands. - as on thejaarf in., 
a smock who walks towards us 
up the MU figures and por- 

trafts can bp Very stiff, his col- 
our garish, his touch cruda 

But than , time and again, he 
surprises us with passages. 
Indeed whole pafetinga; of. real 
tenderness and subtlety, the 
touch tight, the vision fresh 
and true. Behind that odd fig- 
ure trudging up the . hill .we 
catch the real senseef the glar- 
ing summer landscape, with 


the cool sea far below in the 
distance. Again he looks down 
from the cliff-top, high above 
the eccentric roofs and pinna- 
cles of the villas by the sea. His 
beloved boats swing quietly an 
their buoys on the Seine at 
ArgenteuiL In the small late 
self-portrait, the painter half 
turns towards the mirror, 
which is us, gently introspec- 
tive. - 

In all these thing s, the frnagp 
is achieved so deftly ami truly 
tbpt we begin to think afJRen- 
oir.jp the soft, tactile, model- 
ting, erf a figure, of Degas, in the 
coatre-jour interiors and- his 
radical tricks of composition, 
of Pissarro hi the fields and 
gardens,' of Sisley, Monet, 
Manet along the river. With, 
the flower paintings he is all 
but in a class of his own, for 
even Fantin-Latour did not 
paint flowers with such an 
expansive confidence and free- 
dom, nor . yet did any other 
TiBpi wsifliiid paint flitw with 


such easy, attentive accuracy, 
those chrysanthemums so 
crisp and lush. 

' Younger than his fellow 
Impressionists and a late 
. ^ c a r t e r intn the ba rgain , Caille- 
botte died well before most of 
them at only 45, after a career 
of - barely 20 years. His misfor- 
tune, if we ran call it that, was 
to be both well-off and socia- 
ble, keep on such distractions 
as sailing and rowing. His 
hipwis allowed him to patron- 
ise his fellows, itself perhaps 
an inhibition, buying early and 
judiciously. 

The -legacy which he left to 
the state after his death 
brought Impressionist and 
post-impressionist works into 
French public collections for 
the very first time. Not every- 
thing was accepted, but 
Cezanne, Manet, Degas, Sisley, 
Pissarro, Monet and Renoir fea- 
tured strongly among the 40 

that were. Manet's “Balcony”. 

Monet’s "Gare St Lazare", and 


the great “Bal du Moulin de la 
Galette” of Renoir among 
them. But there was nothing of 
Caillebotte himself . though the 
family did give a couple of 
good things later on - a “Sabo- 
teurs du parquet”, and some 
houses in the snow. 

While Caillebotte’ s uneven- 
ness as a painter has to be 
admitted, his subsequent 
obscurity other than as a 
remarkable and generous col- 
lector was no more deserved 
than would be an inflated repo- 
tatioihnaw. flerewe seemmln * 
SB hid qualities kad faults, for* 
the most part more worthy 
than inspired, tat capable of 
flights of brilliance that make 
us wonder at what m ig ht have 
beta, bad he lived longer, or 
had to work harder for a liv- 
ing, or simply been more con- 
sistent hi bis application. 

He was an original too, in a 
modest way, bringing to 
Impressionism an academic 
thoroughness of method and a 


quality of ironical social real- 
ism - a smart bourgeois couple 
on the heavy iron bridge, work- 
men laying expensive parquet, 
house-painters in the street. 
His high perspectives too were 
new, and his interest in near 

and far, in the traffic island far 
below laid out like a map, the 
figure on the balcony against 
the distance, the tiny figures 
seen through the railings. 

But does it matter whether 
or not he was first to look 
down on thOpulqvaxds,. or 
remark the-tijrafty' 
dr take a boat' oqi the lira? "Not 
really. It Is the paintings ■ as 
paintings that matter, and they 
tell us clearly that Caillebotte 
was something more than an 
amateur and dilettante. We 
should give him his due. 

Gustave' Caillebotte - the 
Unknown Impressionist: The 
Royal Academy, Piccadilly 
Wl, until June 23; Sponsored 
by Soti&te Gtaerale. 


O ur herb! shrieked 
the cover of the 
Radio Times. "Why 
everyone loves Ham- 
ish Macbeth," it promised. Not 
everyone. Wednesday's Points 
qf View (BBCI) interviewed the 
author of the original stories 
about the wee highland com- 
munity’s whimsical po l ice man . 
The formidable M.C. Beaton 
who, like a disconcerting num- 
ber of Scots, lives an unequivo- 
cal distance south of the bor- 
der, in her case Gloucester- 
shire, commented stoically on 
.her character’s six-foot-plus 
Compared with the television 
actor’s five-foot-eight, the act- 
or's Glaswegianness as 
opposed to her rustic cr eation . 
By the time she was waxing 
contemptuous about the televi- 
sion adaptation's dog (“Wee 
jockr dear lord) I knew I was 
not alone. 

Hamish Macbeth is part of 
that retreat to cosiness also 
‘ signalled by the success of Bal- 
hjkissangel. another d i mplin g 
peek at quaint Celtic folk. The 
'awful thing is that quaint 
Celtic folk like snch things; 
they think it makes them look 
lovable, however uni Bee the 
real thing it is, rather like foe 
country people who love The 
Archers. It flatters them, pro- 
vides them with an antiseptic 

image. . .. 

Meanwhile Ham i sh Macbeth 
himself looks about as wistful 
as a ferret masticating a vole. 
His little community is a 
creaking cross between Wmsky 
Galon and a Gaelic Milk 


Television/Martin Hoyle 


Quaint Celtic folk at large 


Wood The character of the cop 
himself is still in fuzzy focus. 
In the first instalment of the 
first series he kicked in the 
headlamps of an English visi- 
tor's car, presumably an 
endearingly eccentric trait in 
Scottish policemen. The odd 
bout of pot-smoking evidently 
characterises him as cool a bid 
for the juvenile market, though 
I suspect nice motherly types, 
who have yet to see the actor 
Robert Carlyle as a psycho- 
pathic druggie in Trainspot- 
ting, make up most of HM’s 
fens. 

There seems to be a tight- 
knit group of Scottish actors 
who get most of the jobs. Thus 
it is slightly startling to se ethe 
archetypal urban oddity Andra 
from Sab G Nesbitt among the 
villagers; doubty so to spot the 
bereaved gay from Taggart as 
the (in this context) alarmingly 
maternal male housekeeper of 
the police station. All this and 
a new series of Doctor Finlay 
too. 

Another woman writer, 
whom the media have dealt 
more kindly with. Is A.S. 
Byatt Sunday's Bookmark was 
almost reverential as ft tailed 
the former Bobkar prizewinner 
into the school boiler-room 
where she wrote her first 


C 9VET 


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TteSMtawa to .l taWT i WliBta a 

uBenMtad 

LMriMlKYG 


ST. JOSEPHS 
HOSPICE 

MARE sr„ LOND ON ES 4SA 

(Charity Ret No. 23B33) 

flnJEaster 

Message 

•Hffoygiout the bleak winter 
Uve last tor many to onr 
care, the warmth of yoor 
compassion wa* beyond 
mortal praise. . 

May your klndneasbe 
blessed by peace * n d8o°*j 
health during and aff 


romantic fiction, the terraced 
house, of her childhood, and 
the sfte of her seaside holidays. 
A nice woman, a serious 
writer,, for much of the time 
she was almost defiantly 
unphotogenic, cocooned in a 
dumpy coat and bat straight 
out of silent cinema. She was 
moving when she spoke of 
coming to terms with grief at 
the death of her son. At snch 
moments the programme flick- 
ered wanly with a suddenly 
glimpsed sense of purpose. 
Otherwise, to tell the truth, it 
wasamtte dull. 

It was a week when women 
linger in the memory. BBCl’s 
Hollywood Angel looked at Sis- 
ter Helen Prejean, the Ameri- 
can nun who inspired the 
Oscar-winning fflm Dead Man 
Walking. She is obviously one 
of the world’s - one hesitates 
to say “do-gooders”, the phrase 
is. so eroded by irony, but good 
and ram p assionate she is, with 
a phMrftiily brisk, no-nonsense 
articulateness, and that under- 
lying sense that there is no 
tone to waste that marks out 
the passionately committed. 
•Her sympathy is not merely for 
the convicted of death row tat 
also for the relations of murder 
victims. Saddest of all was the 
scene when two groups cf dem- 
onstrators. faced one another 
outside the jail where a killer 
was due to be executed. The 
man’s, family and friends 
screamed and wailed not only 
at the authorities but at a for- 
lorn middle-aged couple impla- 
cably facing -them across the 
road: the unforgiving, unfor- 
getting parents of a girl raped 
and murdered. - 
. The pr ogr a mme showed Sis- 
ter Helen advising behind toe 
scenes on Dead Man Walking 
with director T3m Robbins and 
actress Susan Sarandon; all 
very worthy, as the movie 
doubtless is. The BBC now 
seems to regard itself as a pub- 
hdty machine for Hollywood. 
On . Saturday BBC2 even 
proudly mounted a double-bill 
(an Australian comedy with 



Robert Cartfa as Hamish Macbeth: his Bttto community Is a cross 
hetman ‘Whisky Gators' and a Gaelic Hfflc Wood* 


Anthony Hopkins, a drama 
directed by Oliver Stone) “to 
coincide with the current 
fatease-of IVezob”. Why? Is the 
corporation's business to dun 
19 support for the local high 
street cinema? Did these mov- 
ies need special pleading? Or is 
ft the did peg syndrome - find 
-a - reason ( ann iv er sary, theme, 
topical reference) to tang pro- 
gramming on? 1 tape there are 
no mere commercial reasons. 

Another young woman's face 
jemains vivid from the week’s 
-viewing. Fleur Lombard was 


the firefighter killed on duty in 
a s u pe r market blaze. A man 
faces charges of arson and 
manslaughter. As Monday’s 
World in Action reminded us, 
one-storey factories, stores and 
warehouses are firetxaps. The 
programme’s two-pronged 
attac k revealed taw financial 
constraints are crippling many 
fire brigades with cutbacks 
both in training and education 
and in personnel - e igh t of the 
first brigades at the Canary 
Wharf bombing are among 
thogp scheduled for the chop - 


but also taw the government 
(aided by vested interests) 
refuses to act on recommended 
safety precautions, all in the 
cause of deregulation and cut- 
ting red tape. "Red tape”, in 
this case means such neces- 
sary measures as sprinklers, 
shown in America to contain 
conflagrations and cut fatali- 
ties. Perhaps the mention of 
America, whose examples in 
all things we have slavishly 
followed since 1979, may get 
through to this government. Its 
present sublime attitude is that 
such measures are unneces- 
sary since the premises should 
be evacuated anyway. At last 
the reasoning behind their pol- 
icy towards the National 
Health Service is dear: hospi- 
tals are unnecessary because 
we should not have got ill in 
the first place. Needless to say, 
officialdom dedined to utter; 
whether from arrogance, idle- 
ness or inarticulateness it was 
left to us to judge. Meanwhile, 
the Image of Fleur Lombard's 
beautiful young face lingers. 

Speaking of arrogance and 
inarticulateness, This Life 
flounders on from disastrous 
episode to catastrophic instal- 
ment. This - forgive me for 
r eminding you if you had man- 
aged to obliterate it from your 
memory - is BBC2’s “comic 
drama” which is neither comic 
nor dr amat ic. There was a fear 
(we should be so frightened!) 
that it might resemble rhnnnri 
4’s Friends. But the characters 
in that American twentyso- 
mething comedy might be 
bright company if you met 
them socially. They come up 
with one-liners, they are occa- 
sionally witty, they express 
themselves ' without a 
four-letter word every other 
line. The BBC’s brood of young 
lawyers is witless, charmless, 
graceless, gormless and clue- 
less. Sullen, callow, foul- 
mouthed and self-absorbed 
they bear, thank God, no rela- 
tion to any living tinman being 
1 have come across. ClumsQy 
written, car possibly improvised 
from graffiti, portentously pho- 
tographed and clod-hoppingly 
directed, it boasts one half-way 
convincing character Scottish 
Anna (Daniela Nardini), who 
looks browned off with the 
whole squalid enterprise. Try 
Hamish Macbeth, then. 


CHESS 


Opposition is mounting to the 
mother of all chess matches, 
the $2m Karpov v Kamsky 
International Chess Federation 
(Fide) world title series 
starting in Baghdad on June 1, 
where Saddam Hussein has 
promised to make the first 
move. The BCF has joined calls 
for an urgent meeting of Euro- 
pean federations, end it has 
emerged that some members of 
the hoard are less than pleased 
at the near-unilateral decision 
of Fide's president Kircnn flyn* 
zbinov to accept the offer from 
his personal friend Hussein. 

Meanwhile, the world No 1 
Garry Kasparov, who broke 
away from Fide, recovered 
from his poor start at VSB 
Amsterdam to share first prize: 
1-2 Kasparov and Topalov 614/9, 
3-4 An and and Short 5; 5-6 

grawnilf ami Tanrtw and 

four others. The result is good 
for Nigel Short, who missed a 
chance to beat Kasparov by a 
rook sacrifice; and splendid for 
the play of the 2i-year-old Bul- 
garian Topalov (Topalov-TTm- 
man, Caro-Kann Defence). 

Ie4c62d4d5 3e5 Opening 
fashions change: 3 NcS, which 
used to be hook here, has given 
way to 3 e5 popularised by 
Start and to 3 cxd5 (Kasparov). 
Bf5 4 Nf3 efi 5 Be2Nd7 6 (M) h6 
7 b3 Ne7 8 C4 Ng6 9 Na3 NF4. 


Nh4 may be a better way to 
Simplify, 10 Barf4 BxaS 11 Bd3 
Bg4 12' Rbl Be7 13 h3 Bh5 14 
Qe2 0-0 15 Qe3! Black has 
made no obvious errors, yet 
White is poised, for a sacrificial 
attack. a5 16 cxd5 cxd5 17 
BxhKBxfB 18gxf3Bb4 Ifgxb6 
19 Qxh6 E 20 Khl! Bg5 21 Rgl 
wins quickly. 19 Khl 15 20 Rgl 
Rf7 21 Bxg7 Rxg7 22 Qh6 BgS 
23 QxeOt Kh» 24 Qxf5 Qe7 25 
Qg4 NxeS 26 dxeS Qxe5 27 
Bbel Qf4 28 Qb5* Kgs 29 
RxgS! RxgS 30 Qh7+ KfS 31 
Qb6+ Kf7 32 BgS* Resigns. 

No 1122 



White mates In four moves, 
against any defence (by K. 
Junker). Earlier solvers have 
found this difficult. 

Solution Page n 

Leonard Barden 


BRIDGE 


This year’s anmial pwpmiwtpi- 

between the House of Lords 
and House of Commons was 
hosted, as always, by the 
English Bridge Union in Lon- 
don. 

Recently, the balance of 
power has shifted to the Com- 
mons. This year, however, the 
Lords reasserted themselves. 
This early board threatened 
disaster for the Lords: 

N 

A A 10 9 7 3 

¥ 9 

♦ K J 10 4 
4 854 

W 17 

♦ Q 8 2 A J 

¥ A 8 6 ¥ J 10 7 5 4 3 

2 

♦ Q5 3 4 A 8 

4 K 10 7 3 4 Q J 6 

S 

4 K 6 5 4 
¥ K Q 

♦ 9 762 
4 A 9 2 

At three of the four tables in 
play, the Commons scored 
well, including 620 for 4H. 
Where the Lords sat North- 
South, East (Michael Mates) 


opened three hearts and South 
passed. West (Sir Peter Emery) 
missed a chance to increase 
the pre-empt when he also 
passed (though this action can 
scarcely be criticised) and Lord 
Stamp (North) baldly protected 
with three spades. 

South might have reasoned 
that his partner had already 
taken full account of all his 
values but he nonetheless 
raised to four spades. Mates 
could have beaten this by 
leading the club queen but hie 
preferred to try ace and 
another diamond. Had Baker 
held the king of diamonds 
rather than the king of clubs, 
this would have bran a win- 
ning action. 

Lord Stamp demonstrated 
both table presence and tech- 
nique when he won the second 
diamond, led a small trump to 
the jack, king and two, and 
finessed the 10 of trumps on 
the way back. 

Declarer could now establish 
a heart winner for a club dis- 
card, to wiafcp his game. 

John Williams 


CROSSWORD 


No. 9,037 Set by CINEPHILE 

A prize of a classic Fefikan Souverfln 800 fountain pen for the first correct 
solution opened and five rmmer-np prizes of £35 Peltkan vouchers. Solu- 
tions by W e dnesday April 17, marked Crossword 9,037 on the envelope, to 
the Financial Times. Number One Southwark Bridge. London 581 9HL. 
Solution an Saturday April SO. 



Address- 


F In the clues has the same meaning, or the opposite without E 


ACROSS 

1 County administrations (6) 

4 Girl, western, in transport 
exposes social disharmony 
(5.3) 

9 Poison affecting single beast 
in row (6) 

10 A net used by the space 
lobby? (8) 

12 Climates adapted for climber 
(8) 

IS Over-ornate article missing 
than state (6) 

15 Knot dangerous to sailors? (4) 

16 In turning nose to snub, revo- 
lutionary bears aims (10) 

19 Old F took the chair with, 
maker of tea and other thing s 

20 Probability of half the num- 
bers (4) 

28 F for first rule on identifica- 
tion the other way (8) 

25 Food for East African and 
where to put it (Si 

27 Give F a miss (8) 

28 Punishment for erring priest 
( 8 ) 

29 Peer worried about writers 
not being spontaneous (8) 

Solution 9.036 


□□□BSE □□□QBQCIQ 


30 Uninteresting nonsense not 
welcome in the bouse (3.3) 

DOWN 

1 Cocktail in combination (7) 

2 Single number in a temporary 
home: F on its day (9) 

3 F for serving man (6) 

5 F is another's property (4) 

6 Sleuth with ms head on her 
hair (S) 

7 Sergeant major maybe takes 

over as suitor (5) 

8 Painter frantic over an F (7) 

11 Relative growing new skin on 

island (?) 

14 Plain liver cooking a turnip 
(7) 

17 F to get influenza and die 
when raised: it's right (3-2-4) 

15 Writer sounds a tramp (8) 

19 Trouble’s up for father with 
fizzy drink (4-3) 

21 Cups set in wrong order, 
think he did it? (7) 

22 F losing its head in front of 
the Queen (6) 

24 Rubbish used to be ten short 
(5) 

26 God of the rising waterway (4) 
Solution 9,026 



WINNERS 9.037: D.W. 1 

C. Pilling, Madrid, S£ 

Bell, Hagsham, Susse 


F, York; Cynthia Jones, Mot 
atius Faherty. Highgate, La 
Byard, Shirley, Solihull 








f .p 


w EEK.END ft 


u/cpijFND ^PRIL 6/AP^lL (/APRIL b IWf* 
FINANCIAL TIMES* Wtb^tNU t\rss. 


BOOKS 


N othing more clearly 
symbolises Japan's 
tradition of conceal- 
ing the unsightly 
than its attitude to 

lepers. 

More than 40 years after most 
industrialised countries ended man- 
datory quarantine for lepers follow- 
ing the discovery of a treatment for 
the disease. Japan's 5.800 lepers are 
still shut up in remote colonies, 
some with excruciatingly euphemis- 
tic names like Garden of Fulfill- 

menL 

That situation Is about to change. 
The Japanese government has just 
approved a bill to scrap the leprosy 
prevention law - under which lep- 
ers are obliged to live in colonies - 
and the new health minister. Naoto 


Sympathy in a world of hostility 

William Dawkins on a missionary who devoted her career to helping Japan’s despised lepers 


Ran. has issued a fulsome apology 
to the sufferers. Within the next 
couple of months, the bill is likely 
to pass through parliament 

All this brings to a conclusion a 
campaign started in the late-isth 
century by a largely forgotten 
English missionary. Hannah Rid- 
dell. Her extraordinary life is 
recounted in a recently published 
biography by Julia Boyd, wife of Sir 
John Boyd, a recent British ambas- 
sador to Japan. 

A forceful lady, who spent much 


of her life trying to rise above her 
origins in a barracks in Barnet. 
Hertfordshire. Hannah Riddell set 
out for Japan in 1890 to make a 
career, more than - or so her col- 
leagues suspected - to save souls. 

She soon spotted an opportunity 
in the treatment of lepers, one area 
where Japan was falling behind in 
its high speed Meiji era transforma- 
tion from feudal to modern industri- 
alised society. In the southern rural 

town of Kumamoto, where Riddell 
was based, she was saddened to see 


HANNAH RIDDELL: AN 
ENGLISHWOMAN IN 
JAPAN 

by Julia Boyd 

Charles E Tuttle 17 Md. 

215 paips 

that lepers were confined to the 
grounds of a Buddhist temple. 

After spectacular battles with the 
local missionary hierarchy, the 
strong-willed Riddell stampeded 


through the social barriers to forge 
friendships at the highest levels. 
With these contacts' help, she estab- 
lished one of the first modern leper 
colonies in Japan, in which inmates 
were treated with humanity and 
respect Riddell was in her element 
r unning her Kaishun Hospital for 
lepers in Kumamoto, perhaps win- 
ning prestige and recognition that 
would have been denied in Britain. 

By Lady Boyd's account, she gov- 
erned with the affectionate firmness 
of a British public school matron 


Known as “Mother" by her fearful 
and yet adoring patients. Riddell 
was often seen being carried around 
Kumamoto in a litter, followed by 
her pa ck of small pedigree dogs. 

Sadly. Kaishun was destroyed by 
the military authorities - who 
thought it was a training centre for 
spies - just after the outbreak oF 
the second world war. But she is 
still remembered warmly by the 
locals. 

They recentlv formed a memorial 

society to Riddell and her niece. 


Ada Wright, who curried on the 
good work after Riddell's death in 
1932. It was recognition of just how 
important the two Englishwomen 
were in destroying some prejudices 
Without ilium, the ending nr manda- 
tory quarantine might have come 
about even more slowly than was 
the case. 

However, tliis acceptance comes 
too late for the few surviving 
inmates of Kaishun and other Japa- 
nese leprosy sufferers. Few old peo- 
ples’ homes will accept them in the 
mistaken belief that leprosy is 
highlv contagious. So they will stay 
where they are. drawing a very lit- 
tle comfort, perhaps, from the 
health minister's apologies and 
memories of old friends like the 
ladies of Kaishun Hospital 




,iu>n ia 


God 

versus 

Evil 

through 
the ages 

Hugh Dickinson on two books that 
seek to make sense of mankind’s 
attitude to God and the devil 

S uddenly Evil is stalk- native inner world of Western 
ing the land. It is culture for more than 2.000 
Evil, apparently, years. Most of the primal 
which spots a twisted myths of our race, such as 
personality and then those from Mesopotamia, deal 





Rereadings/ Brian Sewell 

Anatomy of a 
cat's cradle 



k 


S uddenly Evil is stalk- 
ing the land. It is 
Evil, apparently, 
which spots a twisted 
personality and then 
manipulates him or her to per- 
petrate horrific acts. If the tab- 
loids are anything to go by 
Evil is now regaining a person- 
ality of his own and sports a 
capita] E on his name - an 
age-old attempt to keep up 
with God. He is emerging from 
the dungeon dimensions of the 
psychic world as a newly 
active agency. Satan is even 
getting a biography. 

Of course in the strange 
paranoid subcultures of the 
sects, we expect to find an 

THE DEVIL: A 
BIOGRAPHY 
by Peter Stanford 

Heincnumn £20. 2'*o pages 

THE QUEST FOR GOD: 
A PERSONAL 
PILGIMAGE 

by Paul Johnson 

1 1 hJillhiJ dthi \ h-/l. '/v 'll £1-1.0 *> 

2 If' pdi! i'% 


obsession with demons. Many 
born-again Christians in the 
charismatic and fundamental- 
ist wings of the Christian 
churches are as accustomed to 
the devil's malign presence as 
th**y are to flu. 

But there is still a deeply 
embedded superstitious fear of 
the occult and the paranormal 
even m otherwise sane and 
sensible people. Peter Stanford 
was once editor of the Catholic 
Herald and admits that it was 
!us mvn upbringing by kindly 
Calhohc monks which embed- 
ded the image of the devil in 
liis mind. But there are also 
masse* of dechrist ionised folk 
out there who are convinced 
there is a force of evil trying to 
twist our lives. 

The basic paradigm of good 
and evil. God and Satan, has 
been normative f or the imagi- 


native inner world of Western 
culture for more than 2.000 
years. Most of the primal 
myths of our race, such as 
those from Mesopotamia, deal 
with the archetypal human 
experience of living in a world 
shot through with darkness 
and light. How does it come 
about that the world is so 
absurd? How do we or any 
human beings make sense of 
the grotesque agonies and glo- 
rious ecstasies of our condi- 
tion, woven so inextricably 
together ? 

Devil: A Biography is an 
extended metaphor for a his- 
tory of this age-old struggle to 
account for the darkness in a 
world in which we sense that 
light is truly the condition for 
which we are made. 

The earliest religious myths 
were mostly monist, attribu- 
ting both good and evil to the 
random or inscrutable pur- 
poses of totally capricious 
gods. The classical pantheon is 
the most f amilia r example. The 
inherent amorality of the 
divine realm then becomes 
philosophically intolerable and 
some form of modified dualism 
consolidates into the rigid 
schematised structures of the 
medieval heaven and hell. 

Stanford traces the fascinat- 
ing interweaving of these 
myths and theologies from pre- 
Christian times, and describes 
in graphic detail their gener- 
ally malign influence on cul- 
ture. society and politics, 
through the Crusades, the 
Cathar Heresy bunts and the 
witch hunts of the 17th ceu- 
tury. He takes a happy detour 
through Milton and the 
Romantics and lands us into 
the revivalist sects of the 19th 
and 20th centuries. Ail very 
interesting and well told. 

But is there an enemy out 
there, envious, malign and 
cruel, who simply hates all 
goodness, beauty and truth? In 
Tolkien's great myth The Lord 
Of The Rings he is memorably 
personified as The Dark Lord. 


f 


mzm 










Is there a mafign enemy who hates goodness, beauty and truth? A traditional French fflustration shows Satan destroying agrictriture and the church. 


who like I ago hates without a 
cause. Does Screwtape exist? 
Or are all these potent images 
simply corporate projections, 
metaphors. imaginative 
devices, which help us handle 
the archetypes of darkness 
within ourselves? 

In two all too brief chapters 
right at the end. Peter Stanford 
turns to the psychiatrists 
rather than the priests. Among 
them there are a few voices 
who seem to be saving that 
from time to tame they do meet 
a human being who is not just 
mad but truly evil without 
cause. The judgment is of 
course subjective, but it is one 
to which many priests would 
cautiously assent. The spine 
can still be chilled after all. 


and the “mystery of iniquity" 
remains unresolved. 

The search for Satan is one 
thing. The search for God is 
something altogether other, 
not only because there are two 
different authors - though not 
so different as they might be in 
this case - but because the 
nature of the quest for God is 
deeply existential. This Grail 
contains the mystery of being 
itself. 

Like Peter Stanford, Paul 
Johnson has been imbued with 
the imagery of Catholic Chris- 
tianity from his childhood. The 
Quest For God is subtitled A 
Personal Pilgrimage and is 
explicitly written to try and 
make coherent sense of a per- 
sonal faith within the tradition 


B y far the most enjoy- 
able of the recent 
wave or showbiz 
detectives. Simon 
Shaw's unwholesome hero 
Philip Fletcher is endowed 
with a mordant wit and a 
casual proclivity Tor murder. A 
jokey version of Patricia Highs- 
mith's Tom Ripley, he is 
creepy, self-centred and over- 
weeningly ambitious. Shaw, 
himself a successful actor, is a 
dab hand at backstage bitchi- 
ness. But in The Company of 
Knaves iHarperCoIlins, £14.991, 
Fletcher is obliged to forgo the 
professional boards for a some- 
what less distinguished venue. 

Hired by a cabinet minister 
to recover the diaries of bis 
deceased homosexual father, 
Fletcher has to penetrate a 
louche nightclub specialising 
in drag acts. With the possibil- 
ity of a knighthood spurring 
him on. our disagreeable hero 
decides to utilise his acting 
skills - and Marlene von 
Trapp, “glittering star of the 
Heidelberg Cabaret" is bom. 
The seamy setting provides 
ample opportunity for waspish 
asides, though the Peckinpah- 
like violence of the climax, 
when Fletcher's homicidal ten- 
dencies are finally released, 
involves a grinding gear- 
change from earlier campness. 

We move from the psycho- 
pathic to the psychic with 


Crime / Christopher Hirst 

Drugs, drag and 
psycho-babble 


Murder in Scorpio by Martha C 
Lawrence iHodder. £16.991. Her 
protagonist, Californian pri- 
vate investigator Dr Eliza tfelh 
Chase has a propensity for 
extrasensory intuition and see- 
ing auras. She also has a fond- 
ness for Zen macrobiotics and 
feels the “beginnings of post- 
traumatic stress syndrome- 
after a minor run-in with the 
bad guys. It scarcely speaks 
highly of the Californian police 
force that hunky Sergeant Tom 
McGowan is obliged to call in 
this self-declared witch to help 
investigate the apparently acci- 
dental death of hamburger 
heiress Janice Freeman. 

In the twinkling or a third 
eye. Dr Chase is analysing a 
computer generated cosmic 
map of the demise. “Right in 
the middle of the cluster we 
find Neptune, the mystery 
planet.” she announces. 
“Placed here in the eighth 
house it Indicates death under 
mysterious circumstances." 


As an example of West Coast 
psycho-babble this book is 
hard to beat, but it might 
prove unwise to attempt a 
deeper critique. Judging by the 
dust-jacket. Lawrence shares 
both the beliefs and much-dis- 
cussed good looks of her cre- 
ation. Who knows how far her 
powers extend? 


O verweight and 
resembling a “bald 
dinosaur". Commis- 
sario Kero Trotti 
could scarcely be more down to 
earth. Splendidly realised in 
four previous novels. Timothy 
Williams' morose Italian detec- 
tive is resignedly contemplat- 
ing retirement at the start of 
Big Italy fGollancz. £8.99). He 
brusquely rejects a private 
eye's invitation to look into the 
murder of a wealthy doctor 
and gets on with his final post- 
ing. as head of a child abuse 
unit. But when the gumshoe 
turns up with a bullet through 


the brain, Trotti's involvement 
becomes inevitable. 

There is enough material 
here to fill two crime novels, 
although Trotti’s parallel 
investigation of a deeply 
unpleasant case of child abuse 
offers little of diversion from 
the central theme. After a mar- 
athon slog through the murky 
political terrain of "Big Italy" 
- as corrupt as New York’s Lit- 
tle Italy, but on a national 
scale - the novel ends on a 
tender note of forgiveness. Wil- 
liams' pared-down descriptions 
and staccato dialogue are a 
constant pleasure. 

We accompany one of the 
Met's star acts in Graham 
Ison’s Blue Murder (Little, 
Brown £15.99). Tommy Fox has 
just been promoted to a top 
admin post but, a copper to his 
fingertips, he is soon leading 
an investigation into a multi- 
ple-murder off the Cyprus 
coast This exotic locale rap- 
idly gives way to London's 


of the church, not only as a 
personal exploration but also 
as a potential guide for others. 

As we would expect it is 
lucid, elegant and highly intel- 
ligent. It is also intensely per- 
sonal. The reader has a sense 
of being written to directly: 
“Now, you may be thinking..."; 
"Now. you may say..." John- 
son covers the field of Chris- 
tian belief quite systematically 
- Why believe in God? What 
alternatives have we? He or 
She? Evil, heaven and hell, 
other faiths, eternity and time. 
He concludes with some 
prayers of his own. 

But there can be no doubt 
that the Roman Catholic 
Church is. and always will be, 
Johnson's spiritual home. 


seedy backstreets and the 
murky world of pern movies. 

Formerly a senior CUD man, 
the author has a formidable 
grasp of police procedure. 
Unfortunately his style is a bit 
starchy - "her hair was in that 
state of regulated disorder 
thought by many women to be 
stylish" - and rather low on 
humour. Although the creaky 
constabulary banter is some- 
what reminiscent of Dock 
Green, a pacy plot keeps you 
tur ning the pages. 

At the end of an intermina- 
ble British winter, a new who- 
dunit featuring Majorca cop 
Enrique Alvarez is welcome as 
a week in the sun. Though An 
Artistic Way to Go by Roderic 
Jeffries (HarperCollins, 
is somewhat slow off the 
starting block, you instinc- 
tively know that a character 
labouring under the pet name 
of Bonmkms will not be long 
for this world. Sure enough, 
murdered art dealer Oliver 
Cooper turns out to have 
defrauded a Mafia boas and 
diverted the irrigation water of 
his peasant neighbour. Even 
his glamorous wifo has her rea- 
sons for welcoming widow- 
hood. Inspector Alvarez tackles 
this conundrum with his cus- 
tomary suavity- As enjoyable 
for the setting as the solving, 
the plot is expounded with an 
engaging lightness of touch. 


Moreover. “I want everyone I 
love to be part of the church, 
because 1 am acutely conscious 
of the security and comfort, 
the stability and certitude, the 
happiness and the wisdom - 
yes, and the freedom - which 
being a Catholic has brought 
me. I want to share these 
gifts.” 

So the central problem of 
unquestionable authority and 
certitude remains unques- 
tioned. Johnson engagingly 
admits his own psychological 
need for such a framework for 
faith. But it does seem as if the 
quest for God takes place only 
within a glided cage. It is sig- 
nificant that the name of 
Thomas Merton does not 
appear in the index. 


Aims for Oblivion, the 
portmanteau title of 10 novels 
by Simon Raven that between 
them must be the longest of all 
romans a clef, was published 
between 1964 and 1976. by 
which year the list of dramatis 
personae thoughtfully provided 
with e-?ch volume ran to 11 
pages, and the price had risen 
from a guinea to £3.95. 

A brief statement in the first. 
The Rich Pay Late, informed 
us that each in the series was 
to be independent, though 
loosely connected by 10 major 
characters. 

The constant theme was the 
vulnerability since the last war 
of all that is fine and noble in 
the English upper classes "to 
the malice of time, chance 
and the rest of the human 
race". 

Those who had read Raven's 
first novel. The Feathers of 
Death of 1959, knew what to 
expect, and expectations 
were high, lubricious and 
prurient 

Charterhouse. King's College 
Cambridge, and five years as a 
regular officer in the 
Shropshire Light Infantry, 
gave Raven insights into the 
Machiavellian cat's cradle by 
which the upper crust 
establishment achieves power 
and maintains influence, from 
early youth to dotage. 

He observed its rituals and 
codes, its capacity for 
casuistry, its sexual diversions 
into downright lechery and its 
covert ventures into the ' ' 
twilight of the pretty boy and 
sugar daddy and the mafia 
of that particular under- 
world. 

For his characters he took 
those about him, some now 
recognisable as past members 
of Conservative cabinets, life 
peers and broadsheet editors. 
For settings, episodes and 
narratives he used his own 
experiences, many shared and 
recognised by readers of his 
age to the point of 
hallucinatory familiarity. 

Towards its end the series 
shows signs of effort and 
contrivance: the narratives are 
a trifle strained, a touch too 
fantastical: characters 
that had been plain 
unpleasant, like smarmy boys 
at school, are suddenly 
malevolent 

But the seventh novel. 

Sound the Retreat, retains all 
the early vigour and controlled 
complexity, its events peopled 
with old familiars whose 
cousins, not even twice 
removed, we know. 

In its serious moments it 
illuminates the government’s 
careless abandonment of India 
too soon after the war. with 
riot religious bigotry and 
mayhem the handmaidens of 
that freedom. In more 
light-hearted vein it recalls the 
tribulations and pleasures of 


the national service officer 
cadet and subaltern. 

Raven's sense of the sinister 
steadily darkens the tale and 
brings it to its end with the 
death of Gilzai Khan, a wise 
and honourable Moslem 
captain in the Indian army, ft 
is a predetermined execution, 
but not ns planned - he is 
murdered by an English 
subaltern whom we suppose to 
have been, if not his lover, 
certainly the object of a more 
fh.m avuncular affection. 

Raven's mischievous sexual 
humour irradiates the book. He 
catches the cadets at what 
Jolui Aubrey, the 17th-century 
commentator, once described 
as mastnipntion. introduces 
stout Peter Morrison to joyful 
heterosexual sex with an 
adolescent chi-chi prostitute, 
and sets Gilzai Khan and Cadet 
Mortleman to settling their 



differences by proving their 
manhoods with assorted 
prostitutes and stratagems, 
much to the entertainment of 
all the other boys in the 
platoon. 

Such a tale will never be a 
set text in English literature 
exams, though Raven’s 
command of English is 
felicitous. In any case it is 
difficult to see how the sixth 
form of a comprehensive 
school of mixed ethnicity could 
comprehend the deep-dyed 
Englishness of a chronicle so 
based on public school practice 
and tradition, and glossed with 
snobbery and self-deprecating ' 
wit. 

For men of a certain age. 
however, who are occasionally 
nostalgic, it is the perfect book 
for taking travelling in foreign . 
parts, a reminder less of home j 
than of a past long gone that ; 
made a man of many. j 

Taken as a whole, Alms for J 
Oblivion must be the last grea£ 
picaresque novel, its sub-texts 1 
vice and virtue, treachery and j 
sacrifice, decency and dumb j 
stupidity. It is peculiarly 1 

English - defying translation 
in its Englishness - and 
of all its parts, Sound the 
Retreat is perhaps the prize 
exemplar. 


uner j 


The eyes don’t have ill 

Confused rant obscures the argument. By Peter Marsh 


I f you live in London, 
according to Simon 
Davies, it is hard to go 
anywhere “without feel- 
ing you’re being watched". 
Most sensible people reading 
this sentence will find their 
eyes popping with disbelief. 
Whatever the problems of liv- 
ing in London, where you can 
drop dead in the street without 
anyone noticing, being 
watched is not among them. 

Davies is concerned about 
privacy, or lack of H. He reck- 
ons the information society is 
creating a mass of surve illan ce 
mechanisms which those in 
power are using to monitor 
everyone else. Closed circuit 
cameras, smart cards, comput- 
ers. even telephones - all are 
employed to check up on our 
activities. 

You even have to watch out 
when wandering in the coun- 
tryside, because at any 
moment you might be snapped 
by a photo-mapping satellite; 
these. Davies informs us “are 
capable of recognising small 
objects such as a car or a gar- 
den shed". And there Is worse 
to come, because soon doctors 


will be implanting microelec- 
tronic devices in people's 
brains. Davies warns with bale- 
ful relish: “When our masters 
decide that biological identifi- 
cation will be mandatory to 
operate their wonderful tech- 
nology, the surveillance web 
will be complete. Human and 
machine will be one." 

Although some of Davies's 
fears have some justification, 
the breathless, over-hyped 

BIG BROTHER 

by Simon Davies 

Pan £9 .09, 

294 pages 

style of the book fails to carry 
the argument. Instead the 
reader is dazed by passages 
seemingly assembled by the 
typographic equivalent of an 
out-of-control mincing 
machine. 

Thus the UK civil service has 
an “ingrained hostility to pri- 
vacy" - a sentence which is 
pretty well meaningless. Some 
experts, Davies says, reckon 
“the invention of printing and 
the development of newspapers 


has isic) retarded democracy! 
by eroding public life”. The 
people checking on whether 
owners of television sets in tbe 
UK have paid their licence bills' 
are "TV Nazis”, while com- 
puter viruses will “soon be 
regarded as the single greatest 
threat to the stability of the 
International economy". 

Davies ends his book on a 
note of hope, even if it is con- 
tained in yet another wonder- 
fully confused sentence. 
“Given that pub conversation 

is dominated by tirades dispar- 
aging our fthe UK's) European 
partners, it will be a long time, 
if ever, before people will 
cheerfully accept tile idea of a 
global information system." 

Perhaps tbe biggest indaf' , 
ment of the volume Is that it 
contains just one specific 
example of an individual - a 
mother kept under surveil- 
lance by a hidden camera in a 
hospital - whose life h aS 
apparently been damaged 
such technology. This is a good 
example of how a campaigning 
book can turn into a rant, m 
the process turning potential 
supporters into opponents- 











FINANCIAL TIMES WEEKEND 


APRIL 6/ APRIL 7/APRIL 8 1996 


WEEKEND FT XV 


L> \&£> 



BOOKS 


Children's books 

Creepy crawlies 
and other 


monkey business 

Some will thrill to the tales of terror in the latest 
stones; for others there is gentler fare. By Carolyn Hart 


A lthough you might 
sue theatres nowa- 
days for frightening 
your children, no 
one has yet tried to 
do the same to children's pub- 
lishers. Perhaps British 
infants, brought upoua diet of 
Strewelpeter and Ruthless 
Rhymes, are immune to liter- 
ary terrorism, but recently I 
wondered whether to try 
wringing some compensation 
out of David Pe lham , whose 
Sensational Samburger (Cape) 
reduces my son to a heap of 
neurosis each time he sees it 
Luckily, David Pelham's lat- 
est book isn't nearly so fright- 
ening. Crawlies Crop (Collins 
£5.99) sounds horrible, but is 
nothing more than a mild 
pop-up book in which owls 
b link , foxes slink and ducks 
dip. Even so, you have to 
watch out for the crocodile on 
page 12. 

Some of my son’s favourite 
picture books rely heavily on 
the suspenseful build up of 
fear. Shhhh! by Sally Grindley 
(ABC £7.95). in which the 
reader, by means of peepholes 
and flaps, creeps closer and 
closer to the sleeping giant, is 
one of them, into the Castle by 
June Crebbin (Walker £839) is 
similar. Here two children, a 
baby, a horse and a dog set off 
to investigate the castle on the 
hill: “They say a monster lives 
inside, but no, that couldn’t 
be...” Crossing the creaking 
drawbridge, tiptoeing over the 
flagstones in the courtyard and 
down the cellar steps, they find 
a huge door with a heavy iron 
key. What's on the other side? 
Run! It's the monster. Shrieks 
of terror all round and, for the 
hapless adult, pleas for it to be 
read again and again. 

There is nothing to fear in 
Buzz, Buzz Buzz went Bumble- 


buzz off by a variety of anhnahv 
until he meets the Marilyn 
Monroe of the butterfly would. 


The mysterious activities of 
a farmyard cat in This and 
That by Julie Sykes and Tanya 
Uncfa (Magi £8.99) wfll intrigue 
3-5 year olds. Cat spends the 
roaming begging bits of straw, 
wool and feathers from various 
animals. What does she need 
them for? Ail is revealed when 
Cat shows off a nest of kittens. 

Published in time for Easter, 
Jennifer Selby’s Beach Bunny 
(ABC £735) concerns a worried 
rabbit who tries to round up 
everything he needs for a trip 
to the beach. Naturally, he 
leaves the most important 
thing b ehind - lunch. Excel- 
lent, dear illustrations by 
Selby main* this a particular 
hit with very young chilrh-em 

I Shrieks of 
terror all 
round and 
pleas for it to 
be read again 
and again 

The mad, Mutleyesque dog 
in Adrienne Geoghegan’s first 
children’s book. Dogs Don't 
Wear Glasses (Magi £839), is a 
superb invention: a long-suffer- 
ing hound named Seymour 
whose hyperactive, short- 
sighted owner, Nanny Needles, 
spends a whole day getting 
things wrong and then blam- 
ing Seymour. 

The star of Charlotte Voake’s 
new book, Mr Davies and the 
Baby (Walker £839), is also a 
dog. Mr Davies is a fey scotch 
terrier who loves going for 
walks with a baby and its 
mother. Once outside the gate 
Mr. D's delinquent tendencies 
come to the fere as he races 


Elastic- Much of the pleasure of 
this simple story lies in 
Voake’s illustrations, which 


Of infant life. 

By contrast, the dog in Bene- 
dict Blathwayt's new book. Kip 
A Dog’s Day (Julia MacRae 
£8.99). is a working one, a 
responsible sheepdog who lives 
on a Scottish farm. Kip gets up 
early to round up the sheep, 
helps the farmer fafra f-hwm to 
the show and chases them 
when they escape, before set- 
tling down to a well-earned 
supper. In 2Qp, Blathwayt has 
more or less dispensed with 
words, relying instead on his 
fine, detailed drawings to tell 
the story. 

Good picture books for older 
children - say 5-7 year olds - 
are often difficult to find, but 
they are a useful way of mak- 
ing the transition to wordier 
books. One worth investing in 
is Seeing Red by Sarah Garland 
(Andersen Press £839), a story 
about a resourceful little girl 
whose quick-thinking saves 
Britain from Napoleon’s invad- 
ing army. Brilliantly illus- 
trated by Tony Ross, this is an 
inspiring tale involving com- 
plex notions about history, 
independence and bravery in 
the face of adversity. 

Joyce Dunbar's Indigo and 
the Whale (Prances Lincoln 
£939) explores the implicated 
business of finding one's own 
place in the world. A small boy 
from a sea-faring family longs 
to be a musi cian "But we’re 
fishermen," argues his father. 
“You can't eat tunes.” Aimed 
with a magic pipe and in the 
company of stern whales, the 
boy reconciles the two oppos- 
ing forces in his life in this 
dreamy, thought-provoking 
book. 

The Oxford Funny Story 
Book (£1239) has 28 stories by 
writers as diverse as Bel Moo- 
ney, Richmal Crompton and 
Jan Mark. ‘Potentially hilarious 
situations include a kidnap- 
ping that goes wrong, a gfrl 
who hates washing, a romantic 
frog, and a sad pirate called 
Short Bob Silver and his sick 
parrot. Dennis Pepper edits 
this exuberant collection. For 
children over seven. 


bee (Walker £539), a delightful, about chasing cats and banting 
story by Colin West about an at cyclists. The baby loves Mr 
irritating bee who is told to T> but tus mother to less enfou- 


“Won’t you buzz around with combine a scatty charm with 
me?” she implores him. an acute eye for the minutiae 



Richard Brassy's indtspensble phrasebook "How to Speak Chimpanzee” has now been publshed hi paperback (Dolphin, £339). Illustrations {clockwise from top right) show the emphatic 
“WaaP; file company-seeking *Hooo! her - Hoo! her*; the request for food “Ough, ough ough”; and the sound of unbridled self-satisfaction “Aaaal” 


Fiction for older children 

Making up and making out 

Carolyn Hart finds some unusually well-written titles for teens among the best on offer this spring 


A lthough Lara Harte’s first 
novel, First Time (Phoenix 
House £14.99), was not 
intended for the teenage 
market, it is nevertheless a gripping 
portrayal of a 15-year-old girl stum- 
bling, unprepared, into an adult 
world. 

Middle class Dubliner Cassandra, 
anxious about the new school year, 
fells under the spell of E mm a, a 
poor girl from Kilmore. Being tough 
and sassy. Emma wears make-up in 
school, sports a nose ring and has 
two smokes on Fridays to celebrate 
the end of the school week. With a 
learning curve like that, who needs 
homework, and soon Cassandra has 
abandoned books for the less subtle 
charms of cigarettes, boys and 
black eyeliner. . 

Not surprisingly, it all ends m 
disaster when Emma turns against 
her new protege spreading mali- 


cious gossip about her among their' 
peers. 

First Time will terrify anyone 
over the age of 30. but it marks an 
interesting development in books 
written for young adults. For a 
start, it is extremely well-written, 
without any of the hysterics that 
commonly afflict fiction far adoles- 
cents. It also treats teenagers as 
intelligent people with valid lives of 
their own and, since Harte is only 
19 herself, it has a deeply genuine 
feel to it 


Whatever else it may do, First 
Tone certainly sets new standards 
for the teenage fiction market, 
unmet for the most part this 
spring, although some titles do 
stand out. 

Paris Quest and Amsterdam Quest 
by Judy Allan (Julia MacRae £839 
each, Red Fox pb £239 each) are 
two novels in the new teenage High- 
flyer Series. Jo and Ruth, earning a 
precarious living in a travel agency 
during their year out, are sent off to 
nurture clients in Amsterdam and 


Paris. Plenty of scope for hot dates, 
embarrassing tourists and piles of 
lost luggage. And in Johnny Casa- 
nova by Jamie Rix (Walker £8.99), 
unstoppable sex machine Johnny 
Worms’ campaign to find a girl who 
fancies him founders on the usual 
adolescent rocks of flatulence, pim- 
ples, little sisters and lack of hard 
cash. But this is a genuinely fenny 
book, sparklingly well-written by 
Rix wbo. apart from being the son 
of Brian, is a television director and 
producer in his own right 


Far 10-year-olds the choice is less 
limited, though hoys have a raw 
deal in terms of decent fiction com- 
pared to the plethora of titles pro- 
duced each year concerning the 
lives of pre-teen girls. 

Both sexes, however, wDl enjoy 
Rose Impey's Fireballs from Hell 
(Collins £8.99), a novel designed 
especially for aspirant rock stars - 
for everyone, in that case. Sam. 
Jamie and Luke form a band 
together, find somewhere to prac- 
tise and get all the right gear. Then 


the girls arrive and somehow ah the 
sweet dreams of success are 
hijacked by the delectable Victoria 
Topping and her friends. A witty, 
iiroverent (the first condom joke 
appears on page three) novel aimed 
at 10-pluses. 

More notes on feme can be found 
in Starring Alice Mackenzie by 
Narinder Dhami (Collins £3.99j. a 
story which exploits the idea of fly- 
on-the-wall television. 

Alice’s family becomes the sub- 
ject of a TV documentary and 


although Alice initially shuns the 
idea of stardom, she suddenly finds 
herself the centre of attention. How 
can she keep the cameras trained 
on hei? A fenny, thoughtful book 
about an adolescent's conflicting 
need for obscurity as well as recog- 
nition. 

The Lottery' makes its first 
appearance in novel form this 
month. Flossie Teacake Wins the 
Lottery by Hunter Davies (Bodley 
Head ) is an enchanting story about 
tough Flossie who wins a milli on 
pounds and has great trouble get- 
ting to grips with such extravagant 
wealth. 

An “if-only" novel if ever there 
was one. and already out of date, 
for Davies wrote this gem when 
punters were still assured of £10 for 
three winning numbers. The £9 
needed to acquire a slice of Flossie 
Teacake seems a far better bet. 


American insights 


f icbolson Baker is 
fascinated by the 
word lumber. He 
devotes 107 pages of 
S-page volume to it The 
self is the lumber , of his 
iirious. lively mind, an 
etna] repository in 
reflections about punc- 
i jostle for attention 
rooding thoughts about 
hed model aeroplanes, 
r is also an expert on 
Kiera cinema projector, 
•■platter" system which 
d reels of film about 20 
m harder on the print? 
ay it is, others aver it is 
aker provides a little 
information than you 
need on this and other 
s. but he writes in such 
ouciant and engaging 
- that you hardly notice. 
Irones on, sometimes 
fully and amusingly, 
he way our minds work: 

* develop ideas, cherish 
hen drop them without 
n y. Or how we emerge 


books 


nffiW AUTHORS 

mtlSH VOW WORK 

- 1 L sl'O-SX Hi CONSIDERED 

PlfflCT non taMfl. 1*00*30"*. 
RnfgnO. POWJH CWOrnos 

At .«*>;$ IVCRUMNDE 

■BSBffiBlS, 


from inexplicable mental fogs 
and appear to see things 
clearly: “If your life is like real 
life, there are within it brief 
stretches, usually a week to 10 
days long, when your mind 
achieves a polished and frees- 
tanding coherence. The chant- 
ing tape-loops of poetry anthol- 
ogies, the crumbly pieces of 
philosophy, the tmsmelted bar- 
barisms, the litter tom from 
huge collisions of abandoned 
theories - all this nomadic 


THE SIZE OF 
THOUGHTS: ESSAYS 

and other lumber 

by Nicholson Baker 

Cham »ud B 'Indus £16.99. 
355 pages 


Ik suddenly, like 
reet crowd in a 
il, reforms itself 
pinstriped, top- 


charming. seem- 
»quential story 
og on a bus in 
e when, during a 
r holds up a dis- 
and asks if it 
yona. When no- 
je oil mbs out of 
i the shoe into a 
id off they go. 
ter, a passenger 
ly” hair and one 
t comes forward 
id you by any 
hoe?" The driver 
about that shoe 


in Binghamton. It’s gone now." 
The passenger apologises for 
having been asleep at the time 
and returns to his seat 

Baker tells us that, since 
that trip, five years ago, he has 
given up thinking of decorat- 
ing bis apartment with forklift 
trucks and garden hoes: 
“Somewhere I jettisoned that 
interest as irrevocably as the 
bus driver tossed out the 
strange sad man's right shoe." 

He muses about "books as 
furniture" after spotting an 
advertisement for a pillow 
company in Wisconsin which 
features, inter aim, a man and 
a woman a shelf of books, 
including The Wood-Carver of 
iympus, published in 1904 and 
written by Mary Walla:. “The 
model in the white pajamas 
and I could be the only two 
people who have read, or pre- 
tended to read, this work in 
several decades ... the pajama 
woman is asleep, embracing a 
72 -inch-long body pillow: she is 
dreaming, needless to say, of 
disabled mountain men and 
the bookshelves full of Carlyle 
that taught them everything 
they know; The Wood Carver of 
Lympus waits on her bedside 
table." 

Rich, amusing and provoca- 
tive staff Baker proves - if we 
need such proof - that Ameri- 
can letters are not all' John 
Updike, lawyers taming to lit- 
erature, or Joan Collins- 

• Peter McKay 


J ohn Bickers teth has pro- 
duced a classic diary 
which stands alongside 
those of Kilvert from the 
19th century and Parson 
Woodforde a century earlier. 
Each of these works excels 
because the diarist is writing 
about what they are doing, see- 
ing and feeling rather than 
attempting to produce a defini- 
tive social history. 

And yet ironically that is 
what in part they achieve 
because, from their records, we 
step as it were, through Alice’s 
looking glass into their worlds 
- and in the case of the Bicker- 
steths it is a world of almost 
surreal horror. 

The recruitment figures 
show that the British public 
had a more sanguine view of 
events on the Western Front 
than did their leaders. While 
politicians shouted that the 
first world war would be over 
by Christmas the enlistment 
figures tell a quite different 
tale. 

More than a million had vol- 
unteered within five months of 
its start, with September 1914 
seeing most recruits as the 
public realised a long war was 
instore. 

The Bickeisteth family vol- 
unteered, as did so many oth- 
ers, and became a part of the 
unequal sacrifice which was 
the inevitable consequence of 
this voluntary recruitment pol- 
icy. These diaries are quite 
distinct from similar 
efforts. 

They are a record built up by 
three people: the editor’s two 
uncles and his grandmother. 
Burgou was a cavalry man 


A tribute to two 
brothers in arms 

Frank Field on a moving diary of the first world war 


and J ulian a chaplain at Mel- 
bourne’s grammar school who 
returned home at the begin- 
ning of 1916 to enlist as an 
army chaplain. 

They wrote from the front to 
their mother, who distributed 
their news to other members of 
the family, building up a per- 
manent 11-volume record while 


THE BICKJERSTETH 
DIARIES 

by John Bickerstetb 

Leo Cooper. £35. 382 pages 


adding some glorious entries 
herself. She recalls the nigh- 
twatchman in the close at Can- 
terbury continuing his round, 
railing out “all's well" even as 
Zeppelins were raining bombs 
on foe city. 

But foe diary does more than 
this. It relays a message more 
clearly than, for example, Rob- 
ert Graves does in Goodbye To 
Alt That. This is not because 
the brothers write better 
English, but because the 
events they describe are more 
imm ediately conveyed. 

Life is lived in a collection of 
details. Julian conveys the 
very smell of the front; 
decayed bully beef, sweaty 


clothes, latrines, disinfectants 
and the awful reek of the 
trenches after an en g a ge ment, 
of gunpowder, bodies and 

blood. The kiTling and maiming 

were of mind-numbing propor- 
tions. 

At times the wounded are 
brought to the dressing sta- 
tions and Julian, after days 
without rest, would eat some 
biscuits with hands stained 
with the blood of foe dead and 
dying; there was simply no 
time or opportunity to wash. 

Most of us are aware of the 
sheer number of the fatalities 
in the first world war. But 
these diaries breathe life into 
mere statistics. It is in reading 
how the small groups around 
the two brothers would be 
almost wiped out in an attempt 
to take a German trench 150 
yards away, often failing, 
sometimes having to retreat 
after an initial success, that 
the full horror is made mani- 
fest Within hours 400 men are 
reduced to 150 and then imme- 
diately thrown back Into foe 
fray. And so life goes on for 
Julian, burying the dead, and 
pathetically trying to comfort 
the dying. 

There are the trips into no- 
man's land to recover the 

> 


wounded and dead, foe search 
for personal effects, and the 
never-ending task of writing 
letters home to loved ones. It is 
often at such moments that foe 
brothers write some of the 
most powerful lines ever writ- 
ten from the Front: “My nos- 
trils are filled with foe smell of 
blood. My eyes are glutted with 
the sight of bleeding bodies 
and shattered limbs, my heart 
wrung with the agony of 
wounded and dying men." 

The diaries are distinguished 
in two other respects. The atti- 
tude of the brothers changes - 
from wanting to blow foe Ger- 
mans into pieces, a view Bur* 
gon keeps pretty well to foe 


last, to a questioning of foe 
likely impact of this war on 
society. 

The brothers' wider attitudes 
change too. At foe start they 
exemplify many of the worst 
attitudes of the upper middle 
class. By the end they are far 
less wretchedly ignorant of life 
outside their privileged circle 
of public school. Oxford and 
the professions. The diaries 
also wonderfully depict the 
natural and spontaneous dem- 
onstration of patriotism which 
bound together the whole 
country. 

The record is also remark- 
able for the description of the 
diarists' Christian faith. The 
questioning which is apparent 
in Oswald Creighton's letters 
to his mother during foe same 
war is curiously absent in 
these diaries. The rock-like 
quality of the Bickersteth’s 
faith in such wretchedly cruel 
conditions is fascinating, and 
is an important pointer to the 
society which existed in the 
years when civilisation 
changed gear. 


FT BOOKSHOP 

To order any books reviewed on these pages from anywhere in the worid 
please call +44181 -964 1251 or fax yourcredi card 
details to: +44 181 -9&U254 
Cheques (UK and Eurocheques only please) can be sent to; 

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Airmail Postage Rates: Europe Rest of World 

Hardback £1,50 £730 

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i 





z.y 


XVI WEEKEND FT 


LONDON PROPERTY 


FINANCIAL TIMES WEEKEND APRIL 6/APR1L 7/APRIL S \<*K, 

imternational property 



COUNTY HALL 


c— 


» lS»-' ,s6 


S©8® 





,<rv 3 


sots) r55i»y*g Sf 


99 






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8 C 


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estate agents of Kensington 
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combined krlct»en/i1inin.« riHuii. 4 
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PRICE FFR 4750.000 
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two rioorv aea view, swimming pool, guest house, staff bouse; lavishly 
funusbed with staff on site. Available far abort or long IcL 
For more details please apply by fax 
00 44 (0) 1923 219157 


ALGARVE - ALVORPOHWGAL FOR SALE 
VILA WITH 6 ROOMS and 2 Kites 1 0ttn2 
each, al with WC. 2 shHng rooms, smsfl 
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PRIVATE SALE 

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Tel: Spain (34) 72 55 25 68 


PROPERTY 


SAVHJJ3 


UVDE PARK GATE* LONDON, SW7 
This unique 5 bedroom property of some 799 sq m 
18.607 sq ft) is located in a qmci and ptesaghna cui de «c 
opposite Kensington Gardens It boasts an indoor swimming 
pooL private terracing, doable garage and additional off street 
parking, together with a private UR and separate 
self-contained apartment. 

Share Of Freehold Pike on Application 

AYLESFORD SAVILLS 

0170 351 2383 0171 730 0822 


SW5 LONGRIGE RD 

Verv briaht 2 bed 3rd floor conversion flat. Reception, 
bathroom, eat in kitchen with breakfast bar. £117,500 
for quick sale. L/H. 

Aaron and Lewis 
0171 244 9911. 


WESTMINSTER 

SW1 

£1 49.000 Leasehold- 56 
hfiUbank. Thud floor, spacious 
one bedroom Hat with fitted 
wardrobes, reception with river 
views, fitted kitchen, bathroom, 
haB. communal gardens. 

Tel: 0171 828 3073. 


UNDER DEVELOPMENT 

Five Luxury Houses 
with luxury houses with luxury 
pool Rural site. 20 mins Siena 
2-5 beds. 3fl RcccpL C/H 
Terrace /Gdns / Maintenance. 
For Colour Brochure 
Td: 0181 749 9118 
Fax: DISI 7435394 


PROPERTY 

SERVICES 

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0171 249 2406 


COUNTRY PROPERTY 

Cartmel Valley 

,““**f“* South Lakeland 

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1/2 aia fine ttveaoto 2 baftttxxns, 2 Starcasm, 2nd entrance tafl.Oi fradcartral 
healing. Range of useful outtwldngs. Parldng plus chul* 

, r _, . driveway Court be sptt. 

" c * tiaei Pita £295^100 

and hne mt u TelephaneGedrcsG(ang»«ver-Sands 
. {015385? day 33316 -everengs 36242- lax 34949 


GREECE 


’S 


Yowr Ideal partner for baying or selling... 


Greek Island r BUSINESSES II PROPERTY 


I South Cornwall 




Urt n t anu ptBri views to the saa. Highly 
saduded. Rvs Bedrooms. 2 13 Raception 
rooms. Haand swimirtng pool. Three 
Garzas. Alxuit 9 Acres inchidino paddock, 
mradand and stream. 

Pita £265,000 
BbcKHorea Agents, 

Mamtati Smffli, Cornwall 
Tel: 01326 250228 or 
Fax 01326 Z50185 


WEST WALES 

3/4 bedroomed cx- farmhouse 
with approx . 5 acres and 
detailed planning permission 
to convert bam and 
stable block to 2 conges. 

Contact for ftirtber <i»taiic 
01974821680 


CMEm&&JFFE{ 

Lanje 4 bacfitxjm residence, re- 
decoratedtrajghoutby 
prolassioni Ir^riordesigrBt 
Furrished Sw*riTBng pooL Fomtal 
gardens. W^OOjOO pcm. 
Telephone 01 252 842735 
Fax: 01252 845346 


(easy access - airport I -500m runway) 
Oiswn-buih luxury villas, best 
posable materials, Scandinavian 
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1 1.25-1 USD) Solid expe ri ence ; 
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is of prinie concern, then contact i 

Bruel Developers & Arririteds j 
TO: +45 33 15 74 02 or 
Tel/Fax: 445 33 15 56 30 


Weekend FT 

On Saturday April 20th, the Rrendai 
Times wDI be turning it’s searching 
eye to focus on the County of Surrey. 

If you have property a sell or la in 

the Surrey area, capitafee on the FTs 
connections by targeting an audience 
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For further fnfarmatlon or to reserve 
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Nadine Hovrarth 

Tel: 0171 873 3211 
Fax: 0171 8733098 


HOLIDAYS 


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FINANCIAL times WEEKEND APRIL 6/APRIL 7/APRIL 8 1996 


PROPERTY 


Which Portugal do you want to live in? 

Mary Wilson looks at the cost of holiday homes and villas in a country with two distinct characters 


T he attractions of the 
Atearve, Portugal's pop- 
ular south coast, are 
®any - not to TOgntion 
blue skies, sunshine, 
jxcglent golf courses and sandy 
reaches. If you are thinWn g about 
raying a second home there, it is 
jossible to achieve a satisfactory 
•ent al return, so long as your prop- 
aty Is in top condition and in the 
ight location. 

The Algarve is not short of prop- 
rty, either new or second-hand, 
bices have stopped falling and bar- 
Bin basement time is over. Ven- 
ire of resale properties are begin- 
ing to nudge up their prices 
ew homes, for the first time in 
aur or five years, are rising in 
ajue too. 

“Prices have come up to an 
cceptable level,” says Michael Car- 
enter, of Prime Property Intema- 
onal. “And there is a very good 
loice. We have hundreds of prop- 
rties on our books from under 
100,000 to well over £lm.” 

The Algarve has two distinct 
laractes. In the upmarket, (level- 
led areas you can live a civilised, 
jmpered life in an almost British 
?mmun.ity with your villa, pool 
id garden taken care of, for a 
rice, so you are free to enjoy all 
lur time there. 

Or, you might choose to search 
r the real Portugal and buy a villa 
it in the orange groves in the hills, 
ongside farmers still working the 
nd with donkeys and villages with 
ibbled streets and white-washed 
ruses. 

One of the biggest differences 
■tween the two, apart from the 
estyle, is the price- Villas in the 
g developments, such as Quinta 
i Lago, Vale do Lobo and Pinhei- 
frs Altos can be twice the cost of a 
lllage home in the hills. 

{“Some purchasers do not really 
bpreciate why I probe them gently 
b to what they are looking for," 
ays Carpenter. “They say. just 
tad me all the villas you have in 
be price range, but I need to know 
[hat sort of lifestyle they want to 
fad." 

I Nicky Charlesworth, of Hamp- 
bns. which, sells both new and sec- 
pd-hand property, says that there 
t a trend for people to move back 
b the established developments. 
This is because of security and 
Iso the desire to live within easy 
each of shops, restaurants and 
porting facilities,” she says. 

1 At Lakeside Village, one of Bo vis' 
levelopments at Quinta do Lago, 
is selling a five- bedroom 



The show villa at the exclusive PMwb tt Altos development where the primary purchasers are Britons 


double-storey detached villa over- 
looking the lake for £595,000. Far 
better value - if you prefer to be off 
file beaten track - is a six-bedroom 
villa with guest cottage at Alfeicao 
in the hills north-west of Louie, an 
the market for £330,000. 

In Garvoeiro, an unspoilt fishing 
village an hour from Faro airport, 
you : can buy a three-bedroom*, 
detached villa in a quart er-of-an- 


acre plot with private pool for 
around £140,000. Prime Property 
International is selling several 
around that price. 

In Quinta do Lago, where you are 
unlikely to hear Portuguese spoken, 
a Khntiar house would cost around 
£300,000. There the inhabitants are 
largely British, with some Belgians, 
..Germans and Italians and a few 
Scandinavians--—- — - - 


Prime Propert y International has 
two-bedroom apartments on Quinta 
priced from £115,000 to £185,000, and 
has recently sold a four-bedroom 
villa with pool there for around 
£450,000 including ftiraighing K- 
One advantage of buying a prop- 
erty on a big new development is 
that sometimes it is the only way to 
become a member of a particular 


hnv^ ; 


BLOOMFIELD COtJKI, 
MAYFAIR 

A second floor flat in a purpose built blodk . 
in the centre of Mayfair behind Bond Street 
Reception Room. 2 Bedrooms. 

2 Bathrooms. Kitchen. Daytime Porter. Lift 

Leasehold: £295,000 ' 

Mayfair Office: 0171 408 1161 

GROSVENOR STUDIOS, W1 

A rarely available low built house situated 
within this deligjhtful gated courtyard 
approached from Grosvenor Cottages. Drawing 
Room. Dining room. Kitchen/ Breakfast Room. 

3 Bedrooms. Bathroom. Shower Room e/s. 
Utility. Cloakroom. Secluded Patio Garden. 

Leasehold; £950,000 

Belgravia Office: 0171 235 8088 

| PARK LORNE, 

PARK ROAD, NW8 

A bright seventh floor flat in a purpose built 
block with views towards Regents Park. 
Reception Room. 3 Bedroom. 3 Bathrooms. 
Kitchen. Cloakroom. 

24 hour Porterage. Car Parking. Lift 

j Leasehold: £525,000 

| Mayfair Office: 0171 408 1161 

WILTON ROW, SW1 

Individually designed town house set in 
an exclusive private road near Belgrave 
Square. Sitting Room. Dining Room. 
Master suite. 2/3 further Beds. 
Terrace. Patio Garden. 

Leasehold: £750,000 

Belgravia Office: 0171 235 8088 

j HYDE PARK SQUARE, W2 

A third floor apartment in an attractive 
period building overlooking an attractive 
| garden square. Double Reception Room, 
j 3 Bedrooms. 3 Bathrooms. Cloakroom. 

j 24 hour Porterage. Car Parking. lift. 

Leasehold: £525,000 

Mayfair Office: 0171 408 1161 

ENNISMORE MEWS, SW7 

3 storey house with flexible accommodation 
and potential for refurbishment Reception. 
Dining Room. Kitchen. 4 Bedrooms. 

2 Bathrooms. Terrace. Bathroom. 

Freehold: £650,000 

Belgravia Office: 0171 235 8088 

CHARLES STREET, MAYFAIR 

A fine Grade II house recently refurbished with 
! over 4,000 sq ft of accommodation. Drawing 
j Room. Dining Room, Morning Room- Kitchen, 
i 4 Bedrooms. 4 Bathrooms, plus Staff Flat 
* Roof Terrace. 

| Leasehold: £1-49 million 

! Mayfair Office: 0171 408 1161 

« Aff 

CHARLES II PLACE, SW3 

A well designed townhouse within a modem 
development off the Kings Road. First floor 
■ Drawing Room. Dining Room. Conservatory. 
Kitchen., 3 Bedrooms. 3 Bathrooms. Cloakroom. 
Patio Garden. Integral Garage. 

Porter. Security Gates. 

Freehold: £690,000 

Belgravia Office: 0171 235 8088 


other development, down by the 
beach at Quinta do Lago, low-built 
blocks of flats are going up in a 
private cul-de-sac. alongside one of 
the best golf courses in the Algarve. 

“We are starting to build the last 
three blocks of the development 
this month," says Ann Mills, sales 
manager, “and once these have 
jsonr-the membership will , he 
dbse&^Pripes range from £88,000*0 


£230,000 for a three-bedroom apart- 
ment 

Another option is to buy a plot 
although many people find it taxing 
to buy something not yet built. 
“Yon have so many decisions to 
make about its construction, the 
design and the finer details, that 
generally speaking people prefer 
something which is built "says Car- 


Pinheiros Altos, the exclusive 
development with another excellent 
golf course alongside Quinta do 
Lago, is owned by a Middle Eastern 
company, but run by a British man- 
agement team. There the primary 
purchasers are British and Bel- 
gians. “We also have a few Dutch, a 
few Russians and one or two Ger- 
mans,” says Dominic Pasqua, the 
s a l es a nd marketing manager. “So 
liar no Portuguese have bought, but 
then we have not marketed it in 
Portugal at alL H 

Until now, only plots were for 
sale and, out of the 91 available, 
seven remain. Purchasers who 
bought a couple of years ago 
have seen their investment appreci- 
ate sharply. Several purchasers who 
picked two or three plots have suc- 
cessfully resold them at increases 
averaging around 80 per 
cent 

Price depends on location. The 
lowest increase was 29 per cent but 
one plot, purchased in 1993 for 
£85,140, was sold last year for 
£237,000 - an increase of 17S per 
cent Work has just started on a 
village of one, two and three-bed- 
room apartments and three-bed- 
room townhouses alongside the fair- 
ways. 

Additional facilities will also be 
added, including six tennis courts, 
two swimming pools, a restaurant 
and a bar. Prices here will range 
from £175.000 to £320.000. The 
remaining plots are priced between 
£110,000 and £193,000 and the villa, 
built to your design within an 
agreed external framework, from 
around £180,000. 

The cost of owning and running a 
villa in somewhere like Pinheiros 
Altos is not cheap. This a rough 
guide: there is an annual municipal 
property tax of LI per cent (average 
£700); community fees which cover 
road maintenance, common parts 
and 24-hour security, £1,783; man- 
agement services which are 
optional - maid service £3.54 an 
hour, garden maintenance. £138 a 
month; swimming pool mainte- 
nance. £62.50 a month; and adminis- 
tration, which includes paying bills 
and weekly visits to the villa, £42 a 
month. 

However, a completely hassle-free 
existence on a well-run develop- 
ment is precisely what purchasers 
are prepared to pay for. 

■ Pinheiros Altos, 0171-602 9922. 

■ Bouts Abroad, 0181-4223488. 

■ Prime Property International, 
01628-778841. 

■ Hamptons International, 0171-493 

.-8222. .T.r . 



Debenham 

Thorpe 

Residential 


0171 408 1161 


« 

42 Brook Street 116 Ebury Street 

London London 

W1 A 4AG SW1W9HQ 

Fax: 0171 408 2768 Fax: 0171 823 1013 

International Property advisers 



L et's go siding," my wife 
Jany said to me one 
February morning as 
we sat in the sun on a 
warm cafe terrace in Aix-en- 
Provence. I was perfectly 
happy just where I was, but 
she is sometimes taken by fan- 
ciful urges to travel. “Let's go,” 
she suggested, “to Switzer- 
land." 

Now, bless her southern 
French soul, my wife has the 
odd idea that snow is some- 
thing fun, even romantic - for 
ho- it is the festive material 
that once every few years 
lightly dusts the taps of the 
ornamental palm trees along 
the Promenade des Anglais. 
and then politely disappears. 

I, on thp other hand, having 
grown up in Ottawa, the cold- 
est capital in the .world after 
Ulan Bator in Mongolia, have a 
far more objective view of win- 
ter. I hate It. For me it is a bad 
dream six months long; howl- 
ing Arctic winds, 'salt-rusted 
cars that refuse to start fin- 
gers that behave like frozen 
fish sticks. 

The RsMrnns of the Canadian 
north, it is said, have dozens of 
different words to describe 
snow. So have L but none of 
them is polite. Northern win- 
ters are one good reason to live 
in southern France. 

“It’s impossible," I sighed 
and settled baric in my chair, 
inwardly rejoicing. “It’s been a 
rotten year for snow. Espe- 
cially in Switzerland.” 

“Nonsense,” she said, and 
immediately began making 
lists of objectionable items - 
scarves, woolly hats, snow 
chains and the like. I was firm, 
but she was firmer. 

On the evening we arrived in 
the Swiss mountain village of 
Kandersteg, the weather 
changed: fluffy white snow- 
flakes began failing heavily. 

They were still falling 
heavily the next morning as 
we sat eating breakfast at a 
picture window in the chande- 
liered. Jm-de-stede dining room 
of the Hotel Victoria. Jany was 
enchanted with the view - a 
thick white nap of snow 
stretching away across open 
pastures, stands of tall pines 
with heavily loaded boughs, 
and, no distance away, the 
base of forest-covered moun- 
tains leaping vertically 
towards the sky. 

Even I had to admit this was 
not as dull as the interminable, 
bare, flat frozen shield of 
eastern Canada. The Balm- 
horn, 12,132ft the Doldenhorn, 
11,949ft; Bluemlisalphorn, 
12,014ft; these and a dozen 
other peaks rearing up just 
outside the window all looked 
as unreal as propped-up card- 
board stage sets. 

In fact, there was something 
of a fairy-tale quality not just 


Skiing 

Reluctant 
snowman . 

Nicholas Woodsworth, against his 
will, has fun in Kandersteg 



to the bowl of Bernese Ober- 
land mountains in which Kan- 
dersteg sits, but to Kandersteg 
village itself. 

In the 1500s it was already a 
going concern, a staging post 
on a trade route over the 
mnnnfflin passes to the SOUth. 
Today, immense and solid, the 
age-darkened facades of its 
wooden chalets and inns are 
sculpted, chiselled, painted, 
decorated and inscribed in Teu- 
tonic script with a detail and 
intricacy reserved everywhere 
eke for lace. 

On Kandersteg'S crisp, 
snowy thoroughfare^ there 
were no steamy burger bars, 
no while-U-wait muffler 
garages, none of the messy 
sidewalk results the rest of the 
world puts up with after it 
walks the dog. How do the 
Swiss do it? Without coyness 
or pretension, they somehow 
manage to make their winters 
as civilised, as amenable 
ideasing, as their summers. 

Well-dressed women walked 
down the street holding 
umbrellas against drifting 
snowflakes. Red-cheeked 
babies swaddled in blankets 
were pulled along in miniature 
wicker-work sleds. 

But elegant and pleasing as 
it all was, I was not allowed 
simply to admire the Swiss 


winter from a hotel window; 
my wife insisted I actually get 
out into the snow. 

I was hesitant about interact- 
ing with anything cold, wet or 
slippery, and especially with 
the thin, ultra -light strips of 
fibre-glass and polyurethane 
that are today’s cross-country 
skis. And I was not greatly 
reassured when we called in at 
Fritz Kuenzi's rental shop to 
pick up some of our own. 

Kuenzi spent his childhood 
In the high alpine pastures 
above Kandersteg. A former 
member of the Swiss national 
cross-country ski team, he was 
courting his future wife on 
moonlit night-time cross-coun- 
try ski trysts before Kander- 
steg's 80km of perfectly 
groomed tacks were ever 
dreamed o£ And very romantic 
it was, too. Frau Kuenzi added 
from behind the glove and pull- 
over counter. 

“Back then,” Kuenzi said as 
he fitted us with feather- 
weight material, “skis were 
made of heavy wood and the 
footwear was like army boots. I 
could only finish a 5Qkm race 
in about three hours. Today it 
has changed. Both the equip- 
ment and the skiing tech- 
niques themselves. Now you 
can do 50km in under two 
hours.” 


I assured Kuenzi he had to 
be kidding - if I managed to 
stay upright at all I might do 
50km in about two weeks. 

But, as I found myself admit- 
ting over the next few days, 
the great thing about cross- 
country skiing is that you 
do it quite happily at any level 
- from the simple trudging 
pace that I began with, to the 
more extended and energetic 
movement of the experienced 
skier, to the fluid skating 
motion that has the experts 
flashing past and out of sight 
before you even notice them. 

And, for a novice like me, an 
even greater thing about the 
trails of Kandersteg is that the 
slower one skis, the more Hrm* 
one has to notice the world 
around. 

Some trails wound about 
through the village itself. A 
year-round resort, Kandersteg 
also remains an active fa rming 
community. I enjoyed skiing 
past wooden farmhouses where 
the smells of the barnyard min- 
gled with the fragrant odours 
of cabbage cooked with cumin, 
past fields where shaggy 
ponies rolled in snow, past 
dairy farms where metal milk 
churns hung beneath icicle- 
draped eaves. 

Despite the snow all about 
them, it was warm enough for 
ducks to splash about in the 
Kander River, for trout to fin 
their way through clear water 
under Its wooden bridges. 

Kandersteg had its wilder 
side, too. High above the vil- 
lage through pine forests, 
accessible only by a chairlift 
ride and a winding piste 
through the woods, lay the 
frozen alpine lake of the Oes- 
chinensee. Surrounded by tow- 
ering diff faces that appeared 
and disappeared, mirage-like, 
through shifting cloud and 
winter haze, frequented in win- 
ter only by lonely ice-fisher- 
men, it is a sublime place for 
cross-country skiing. On the 
day we slid across its frozen 
surface it was as wild as Lap- 
land, as uninhabited as Sib- 
eria. 

Is there a difference between 
the Oeschinensee and other, 
ruder parts of the northern 
world? On the way down, the 
chairlift attendant wrapped a 
red rug around our knees. In 
the valley below waited a crisp 
white Swiss wine and a cheese 
fondue dinner, a Bach organ 
concert in the steepled church 
beside the Hotel Victoria, and 
soft eiderdown duvets to drift 
away in. 

My wife may just be right, 
after alL Snow can be fun. 

■ Nicholas Woodsuorth's stay 
m Kandersteg teas arranged by 
Inn travel, specialists in Euro- 
pean crosscountry ski holidays, 
Hooingham. York Y06 4JZ, tel : 
01653428811, fax: 01653-62874L 



f ~J 


XVIII Weekend FT 


FINANCIAL TIMES WEEKEND APRIL 6/APK.L 7/APRIL X .»»■ 


COLLECTING 


Pent-up demand finally 
spills into the saleroom 




Antony Thomcroft on a timely boost for the picture trade 


T hings are looking 
up - at last - in the 
picture trade. At 
Christie's last week 
a painting by John 
William Waterhouse. "Boreas", 
showing a pretty’ girl grappling 
with the wind, sold for 
£SJ&500. easily a record for 
this late Victorian artist and 
double the pre-sale estimate. 

The painting is very much to 
the taste or Sir Andrew Lloyd 
Webber, the composer, and he 
is almost certainly the buyer. 
But the amount he had to pay 
confirms that there are some 
other enthusiastic bidders for 
the best of 19th century art. 
even if "Boreas" was painted 
in 1903. 

There is perhaps only ooe 
other painting by Waterhouse 
in private hands which would 
Tetch this kind of money but 
the high price should draw out 
other comparable icons of Vic- 
torian art. This is what the 
trade needs - tup quality paint- 
ings to sell. 

For. in spite of the success of 
the Waterhouse, only 58 per 
cent of the '290 paintings 
offered at Christie's found buy- 
ers. The auction was padded 
out with the tired and the 
unexceptional, works which 
attracted few bids. 

Even so. expert Martin 
Beisly was optimistic. A num- 
ber of paintings which had 
been unsold at previous auc- 
tions appeared again and found 
buyers. For example. “Boreas 
and Orithyia" by Oswald von 
Glehn fetched £17.250: in 1994 it 
was unsold at £12,000. The 
peut-up demand of collectors is 
spilling out into actual pur- 
chases. 

Sotheby's was offering no 
masterpiece in its Victorian 
sale but demand was stronger 
across the board, with the auc- 
tion an impressive 85 per cent 
sold. The Victorian Master of 
moonlit nights. Atkinson Grim- 
shaw. seems to be much 
sought after, and the top price 

paid, for a typical work by 
God ward of a young girl admir- 
ing herself, weut for almost 
twice its estimate, at £107.100. 

It is not only Victorian art 
that is showing signs of 
revival. The recession hit hard- 
est 20th century British art. 
especially the work of the New- 
lyu School and the Scottish 
Colourists. Many paintings 
sold in 1989 are still worth half 
their purchase price, but cer- 
tain 20th century artists are in 
demand, notably L.S. Lowry. 

The fact a big lottery project, 
a cultural centre in his native 
Salford, carries his name has 
helped stimulate interest in his 
work. And London's leading 
dealer Richard Green opens an 
exhibition of paintings on 
Wednesday, all for sale, priced 
between £I5.0<10 and £100.000. 

Lowry seems to exercise an 
emotional appeal over self- 
made men. some of whom buy 
no oi her artist. His prices have 
more than doubled in the last 
decade, helped by an exhibi- 
tion iii 1991 at Crane Kalman, 
which sold 20 works, and the 
dispersal of the collection of 
Lowry's friend Geoffrey Ben- 





life 

This painting by Waterhouse sold for £848£00 at Christie's in London last 


nett which secured a record 
auction price of more than 
£150.000 for one large work. 
“Punch and Judy”. So great is 
the demand for a Lowry that 
one of his five-minute 
sketches, measuring just 4in 
by Tin. sold last month for 
almost £30.000. as against a 
£5.000 estimate. 

The interest in Lowry has 
also helped the prices of Ids 
cheaper follower. Helen Brad- 
ley. Susie Pollen of Sotheby's 
notices many more private 
buyers at the 20th century auc- 
tions. which makes the market 


uncertain. They are spending 
up to £10.000 on a good picture. 
usually figurative, to decorate 
their home, which makes their 
taste individualistic. 

The dealers are sticking to 
those artists whose work is 
easy to sell on - Seago, Rus- 
seli-Flint, Dawson - but there 
is less interest in prolific paint- 
ers like Brat by: potential bid- 
ders are waiting for the very 
best examples. Jonathan Hor- 
wich of Christie’s makes the 
familiar point - good demand 
for the very best: little interest 
hi the mundane. 



week. The price was a record for the 1 

Richard Green deals in most 
fields of art and reckons that 
“The market is better than a 
year ago, but people are not 
prepared to pay the frothy 
prices of the late 1980s, which 
is a good thing. We are back 
now to the price levels of 
1984-85.” 

But certain British artists - 
Munnings, Lucian Freud, Stan- 
ley Spencer - have managed to 
buck the downward trend, and 
anything of real quality, of 
whatever period, will do well. 
The Maastricht Fair last month 
was the best for many years 
for the picture dealers, espe- 
cially those offering good 
works by Dutch and Flemish 
Old Masters. 


T hey will be looking to 
re-stock and wifi have 
good opportunities at 
the summer Old Mas- 
ters sales in London. Sotheby's 
is offering on July 3 works 
from the collection of the York- 
shire businessman Enrico Fat- 
torini. including a courtyard 
scene by Pieter de Hooch 
which carries an estimate of 
£3m. In 1937 it sold for £17.500. 

Old Master paintings are a 
difficult area - for many new 
collectors their religious or 
mythological imagery means 
nothing - but a fine Old Master 
is so much cheaper than a 
mundane Impressionist and 
this message is getting across. 

Also picking up is 18th cen- 
tury British art. Sotheby's had 
an encouraging auction on 
Wednesday which was almost 
70 per cent sold by lot A race- 
horse painting by James Sey- 
mour made £419,500, well over 
double the estimate and a 
record for the artist while an 
early portrait of Queen Eliza- 
beth 1 by Van der Meulen went 
for three times its forecast at 
£128,000, to an American 
buyer. 

The improvement in demand 
for British art reflects, in a 
diminished way, the revival in 
big money art, the master- 
pieces of Impressionism and 
the 20th century. These are the 
basis of the fortunes of Sothe- 
by's and Christie's and, after 
four bad years. 1995 was very 
encouraging, with Sotheby's 
increasing sales in this sector 
by 94 per cent to £229m and 
Christie's by 67 per cent to 
mim six paintings sold for 
more than $12m last year, with 
Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber pay- 
ing the mast, $29. Im, for a Pic- 


; JAN VAN G OYEN 

A - 159 6 ~ 1 656 

Moan exhibition commemorating cht 400riv .anniversary of his birth 

Wednesday I7ch April vSartifciav l IthMay ! 996 - - 
.(Closed ‘Saturday 4rh May : 6c Bank Holiday Monday 6th May) ' 
Hours: Weekdays 1 0.00am ySoOpni. Saturdays 1 l.OOa.T. -S-OOpn: 
.•* Wv. Bond 5; :ce:. 1 ondoh WTV 6HD 



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Alexander Guy's Crucifixion 


•augoff Museum OC&*V0t UodfAt 


Glasgow deserves 
better than this 


list and twice the pre- sa le es tima t e 

asso portrait at Sotheby’s. 

Attention is switching to the 
late spring sales in New York 
where Christie’s has pulled off 
a coup by securing seven 
important works from the col- 
lection of the late Joseph H. 
Hazen, the Hollywood pro- 
ducer. 

These include a Degas 
“Femme au tub”, which should 
make $8m. plus Slm-pius 
works by Gris and Mir6. Last 
November Sotheby's sold 15 
works from the same source 
for $51 An. It is unusual for 
sellers to switch auction 
houses but Christie's managed 
to dispose of more works 
within, or above forecast, in 
the November auctions than 
its rival and it has a good track 
record in Degas. 

Christie's also has the most 
expensive painting on offer, a 
Gauguin sunflower picture, 
estimated at up to $l0m. Sothe- 
by's is hoping for $4m each for 
works by Picasso and Vuillard 
but both houses must be disap- 
pointed that last autumn's 
buoyant sales have failed to 
draw oat even better pictures. 
The demand is there but own- 
ers are reluctant to sell. 


I don’t like contemporary 
art. ..I find it boring, the 
man with the paint brash 
motif on his tie said. 
Nothing wrong with that, you 
might think - except that the 
man w'as Julian Spalding, 
director of Glasgow Museums, 
who, for the last five years, 
has had the unique privilege 
of spending the income from a 
£3m investment by Glasgow 
City Council on contemporary 
art. 

Spalding’s choice is on view 
to the new Gallery of Modern 
Art in the city, filling the 
24.000ft of exhibition space 
created by the 27.2m conver- 
sion of the former Royal 
Exchange, one of Glasgow's 
finest 18th century buildings. 
The sole criteria for selection 
was that the work be by ifving 
artists. 

What an opportunity. In this 
position or unique privilege, 
Spalding’s views on contempo- 
rary art are of vital interest 
And he has never been afraid 
of expressing them. 

On taking up his task five 
years ago. he made it known 
that his selection would be a 
declaration of war on the 
“self-interested establishment" 
which promotes “art for an 
elite...” in favour of work 
defined, by himselT of course, 
as striving to reach ont to 
everyone. It would be at once 
both profound and popular, 
above all positive, defining the 
role of the new gallery as 
being “in the entertainment 
business." 

Looking at the work chosen, 
however, positive thinking art 
seems to consist of a core of , 
Scottish figurative painting ' 
from the now not so new Glas- 1 
gow Boys - Stephen Campbell, 1 
Ken Currie, Peter Howson and 
Adrian Wiszniewski - who 
found fame in the 1980s, and 
their senior John Bellany; a 
few abstract pieces by the 
likes of Alan Davie and Brid- 
get Riley; some ethnic bits and 
bobs heavy on Australian 
aboriginal paintings; a few 
photographs and the odd piece 
of sculpture, concocted out of 
bits and pieces and juddering 
into spasmodic, noisy motion. 


COLNAGHI 


ESTABLISHED |7WI 



PIERRE HENRI DE VALENCIENNES 
Toulouse 1750 - Pjris 1819 

Aa fclnrf L LJuJ-o^r cnlh WKftrmimn: nwitJ a hinuom 
CHI on n»»- 205 7 . 1 k2j 5 cm. spied and datol 1».w 


14 OLD POND STREET 
LOMOON WlX 4JL 
TELEPHONE: ni n-4 1 * I 7-HW 
FACSIMILE- HI ?I-WI JW5J 


21 EAST hTlh STREET 
NEW YORK NY IlKCl 
TELEPHONE- 2I2-7T2 2>wi 
FACSIMILE- 212*737*125 


And he could have had any- 
thing in the world. Oh dear. 

Spalding's taste, which he 
has been permitted to indulge 
so monstrously, seems to have 
been formed some time in the 
late 1960s. This would explain 
his enthusiasm for Brace 
Lacey and Allen Jones, his 
notion of fun as embodied in 
the fat ladies of Beryl Cook, 
and his commissioning of Niki 
de St Phalle to rain the build- 
ing’s classical tympanum. She 
has produced a horrid mir- 
rored mosaic and covered the 
entrance area walls with yet 
more mirror, ominously 
cracked, a warning to the visi- 
tor that all is not well within. 

If only there had been one or 
two really good pieces of work 
- something by Bruce Nan- 
man, say. or Agnes Martin or 
even Lucian Frond if serious 
figure painting was to be the 
dominant theme. It might then 
have been possible to forgive 
the rest, the relentlessly sec- 
ond rate, chosen to fit a 
patronising notion of the “pop- 
ular", which exists only in 
Spalding’s bead. 

For him “popular" seems to 
mean pictures of people - bad 
paintings, ugly photographs, 
horrid sculptures, it does not 


matter so long as they areof •'* 
hu man beings. Not throqh > - 
ignorance, but certattfy -<3 
through prejudice, he chores 
to ignore the non-figuratre ■ 
tradition which has been le 
most significant contrihntin 
this centnry to the develp- - • 
meat of art and which is ie 
root of the flowering of cn- * ' 
ccptnal. installation, film ad * v 
video-based work that hs . 
brought young Scots such b { r 
Donglas Gordon, Dalzell&^'j 
Scallion and Kate Whitefrd './• 
to that international recogi- ■'? 
tion be views with such ts- - 
data- 

in private, Spalding is eri- 
tied to his opinions. In ae 
public role entrusted to hit. .. 
he has misrepresented tt ‘ . 
state of contemporary art » ■ 
badly that the collectin 4 
already has a weary, stibd •••.. 
air, the argument of a pb* j 
bore. As the income from ie ' 
council’s generous investmat 
con tomes to roll in, the site- ■ 
tion can be rectified, ad 
should be as a matter of , - 
urgency, so that Glasgows , 
investment in living art ray • 
attain the quality and inlg- **.» 
rity the city deserves. ir 

Lynn MacRitche 


RICHARD GREEN 



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Group of people. Signed and dated l«>53. BounL 87.- x I IV. in / 21 J » 29.3 an 

Laurence Stephen Lowry ra 

1887 - 1976 

Exhibition opens on Wednesday. I Oth April 1996 
Fully illustrated catalogue £10 including postage 
at 4 New Bond Saw I. London W’f V OSP 
Telephone: 0171-493 3939 • Fax: 0171-495 0636 
Nc*i Yortu 518-5K3 2060 • E-mail: pictures!^ rgnNMi.l1echxo.uk 




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jQ onnan JBTbamg 

a-io Hone stoma. London SW9 lX» 
Telephone Ol n M95906 FuoiTlSMlKO 



A fine Hepplew 
Pembroke iab, 
Circa I7S5 


L\\V. ’■ 

Hepplewhite L' r -: * L 
>roke table. -V 


mm 


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1996 Colour 

acquisitions 

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FINANCIAL TIMES WEEKEND APRIL 6/APRIL 7/APRIL 8 1996 


INTERNATIONAL ARTS GUIDE 


What’s on in 
the principal 
cities 


■ ADELAIDE 

EXHIBITION 

Art GaUary of South Australia Tet 

61-&-207700Q 

• Arthur Streeton 1867-1943: 
retrospective exhibition of the tet of 
the Australian landscape painter 
Arthur Streeton. The display 
features works from throughout his 
career, Including his early 
Impressionist work, his later, large 
rural landscapes and his views of 
Sydney Harbour to Apr 14 


■ AMSTERDAM 

CONCBTT 
Concertgebouw Teh 

31-20-5730573 

• Amsterdam Loeki Stardust 
Quartet: perform Spanish court 
(.•usic by La Spagna, 16th century 
nances, cand canes and fantasias; 
11am; Apr 7 

• Nederiands Kamerorkest with 
conductor Hartmut Haenchen, 
soprano Barbara SchHck and alto 
Katarina Kameus perform works by 
Van Wassenaer, Pergotesi and 
Locatefli; 8.15pm: Apr 10, 13. 14 


>Ji : f 1 1 [•; i 


Do Nleuwe Kerfc Tel: 
31-20-6268168 

• The Buddhas of Siam: exhibition 
showing art treasures of Thailand. 
Among the exhibits are several 
buddhas and works expressing the 
fife of Buddha; to Apr 15 
OPERA 

Hat Muziektheater Tel: 

31- 20-5518117 

• La Bobdme: by Puccini. 
Conducted by Hartmut Haenchen 
and performed by De Nederiands© 
Opera. Soloists include Roberto 
Aronica, Paul Whelan. Ainhoa Arteta 
and Lucia GaHa; 8pm; Apr 8, 11. 14 
(2.30pm). 16, 19 

■ ANTWERP 

CONCERT 

De Vla&mse Opera Tel: 

32- 3-2336808 

• Galina Stamenova. Morris Powell 
and Andrew Wise: the violinist, 
hom-piayer and pianist perform 
Brahms' Sonata for Violin No.3, 

Op. 108, Sonatensalz and Trio in E 
flat. Op. 40; 0.45pm: Apr 10 

■ ATHENS 

cCUCERT 

Athens Concert H&B Tet 
30-1-7282333 

• Matthaus Passion: by J.S. Bach. 
Performed by La Camera ta, .. 
Orchestra of the Friends of Music, 
the Cappeila Istropo&tana, the 
Stadtischer Konzertchor Duisburg 
and the Boys’ Choir of the German 
School of Athens, conducted by 
Mfltiades Caridis. Soloists indude 
soprano Ute Set big, alto Daphne 
Evangelatos, tenors Kimon 
Vassjtopoukts and Jbrg Hering, 
basses Robert Holl, Robert Holzar 
and Christophoros Stamboglis, 
organist Rudolf Scholz. 
harpischord-player Katerina Klona 
and cellist Aristea Caridis; 7.30pm; 
Apr 7, 8, 9 

■ ATHENS (USA) 

EXHIBITION 

Georgia Museum of Art Tel: 
1-706-542-3255 

• From Bonnard to 
Toulouse-Lautrec: Avant-Garde 
Printmaking in France in the 1890s: 
this exhibition provides an 
opportunity to see prints by artists 
who helped create the publication 
f’Estarrpe originate, at which the 
museum owns a rare, complete set, 
and from which most of the prints 
On view originate. The show 
explores the ways in which 
3v4k'-gardists in France m the 
1890s brought their concerns abcm 
contemporary art and life to the 
print medium. Artists include Pierre 
Bonnard. Edouard Vuillard, Maurice 
Denis, Paul Gauguin, Henri de 
Toulouse-Lautrec, Paul Signac and 
Mary Cassatt from Apr 14 to Jun 
16 

■ ATLANTA 

CONCERT 

The Fabulous Fox Theatre Tet: 
1-404-881-2000/892 5685 

• Isaac Stem, Jaime Laredo. 

Yo-Yo Ma and Emanuel A v the 
violinist, viola-player. ceJhsi and 
pianist perform works by Brahms. 
Mozart and Dvorak; 8pm: Apr g 

■ BALTIMORE 

EXHIBITION 

Baltimore Museum of Art TeL 
1-410-396-6310 

• Ancient Nubia; Egypt's Rival in 
Africa: exhibition of 300 objects 
from ancient Nubia, from the 
collection of the University 
Museum, University of 
Pennsylvania. Works in ceramics, 
stone, ivory and bronze trace a 
3.600-year history of Nubia and 
give a perspective on its volatile 
relationship with Egypt Nubia both 
influenced and was influenced by 
Egypt culturally. Eventually Nubia 
conquered Egypt, creating the 
largest state ever to exist along the 
Nile (£*2-65780; to Apr 14 

■ BERLIN 

CONCERT 

Konzerthaus Tet 49-30-203090 

• VaS6ry Afanasstev: the pianist 
performs Beethoven's 11 
Bagatelles, Op.119, 6 Bagatelles, 

Op. 126 and 33 Variations on a 
Waltz by DJabeft Op.120: 7.30pm; 
Apr 10 

Philharmonic & 

Kamme rmusrikaaaJ Tel: 



Detafl from The Parasol', 1777 by Goya, on show in Oslo 


49-30-261 43S3 

• Das Sinfonue Orchesler Berlin: 
with conductor Borislav Iwanov and 
soloists Lilian Gem, Yoshikazu 
Jumei and Seiko Ezawa perform 
works by Mendelssohn, Chopin and 
Tchaikovsky; 8pm; Apr 7 

• Deutsches Symphonie-Ochester 
Berlin: with conductor Giinter Wand 
perform Beethoven’s Symphony 
No.4 in B major and Brahms' 
Symphony No.t in C minor: 8pm: 
Apr 7. 8, 9 

DANCE 

Deutsche Oper Berlin Tel: 
49-30-3438401 

• M: a choreography by Maurice 
Beiart to music by Mayuzumi, 
performed by the Tokyo Ballet; 
7.30pm; Apr 10. 1 1 

OPERA . . 

Me tropol-Th eater Tel: 
49-30-202460 

• Die Fledennaus: by J. Strauss. 
Conducted by GQnter Joseck and 
performed by toe M e tropol-Theater. 
Soloists include Gert Bdhme, Bemd 
Weisse and Daisy Steiner. 3pm; Apr 
14 

Staatsoper Unter den Linden Tel: 
49-30-2032361 

• Der Ring des Nibelungen: 
Gbtterdammerunq: by Wagrter. 
Conducted by Daniel Barenboim 
and performed by the Staatsoper 
Unter den Linden and the 
Staatskapelie Berlin. Soloists 
include Poiaski. Meier. Jerusalem 
and lomlinson: 4pm; Apr 8 

■ BILBAO 

EXHIBITION 

Musco de Bellas Arles Tel: 
34-4-4413536 

• La Sorfedad de Artis tas Ibericos 
y a" Arte Esparto! de 1925: 
exhibition cf works by Spanish 
artists araurti 1925. The display 
include? works by Rafael Barradas. 
Francisco Sores. Salvador Dali, 
Eep;amin Palerssia and Carlos 
Saenz de Tcjerfj. la Apr 14 

■ BONN 

DANCE 

Oper dor Stadt Bonn Tel: 
43-22S-72S1 

• Dor a choreography by 

Valery Fane*.- fc music by Minkus. ' 
performed tv the Salletl der Oper 
der SundoiiSfzd: Bonn and the 
Crchezter oer Ssetiiovenhaile. 
Soloists m rtude Cid;e- Gettliffe. 
Dan.io Mnrzotto. Inna Zavialova and 
Vadim Bender. Ppm: Apr 9. 19 
EXHIBITION 

Kunst- und Austollungshalle der 
Bundcsrepublik Deutschland Tel: 
49-3:5-9171200 

• Alfred Sliegifc: the exhibition 
presents pfoiographs by toe art 
dealer and photographer Allred 
Streglitz tar.cn between 1920 and 
1930 at tijs summer heme at Lake 
George. Mew York; to Apr 14 

■ BOSTON 

CONCERT 

Boston Symphony Hafl Tel: 
1-617-265-1492 

• Boston Symphony Orchestra: 
with conductor Seji Ozawa and 
violinist Akiko Suwanai perform 
works by i.es, Bruch and Brahms; 
8pm; Apr 9 

■ BRUSSELS 

CONCERT 

Palais des Beaux-Arts Tel: 
32-2-5078466 

• Thomas Hampson: ascompanied 
by pianist Wolfram Rigier. The 
baritone performs songs by Mahler, 
Butterworth. Schoenberg. 

Zemfinski. Weber and R. Strauss: 
8pm: Apr 9 

THEATRE 

Koninkfljke viaamse Schouwburg 

Tel: 32-2-2194944 

• Canton's Death: by Buchner fin 
Dutch}. Directed by Theu Boormans 
and performed by De Trust and De 
Konlnklijke VUiamse Schouwburg. 


The cast includes Peter Tuinman, 
Jappe Claes, Bert Andr6 and 
Khaldoun Bmecky; Bpm; to Apr 7 
(Not Mon) 

■ CARDIFF 

CONCERT 

St David's Hall Tel: 

44-1222-878444 

• Mass in B minor: by J.S. Bach. 
Performed by the BBC National 
Orchestra of Wales with conductor 
Nicholas McGegan. Soloists include 
soprano Susannah Waters, 
mezzo-soprano Catharine Robbin 
and tenor Mark Tucker; 7.30pm; 

Apr 14 

■ CHICAGO 

CONCERT 

Chicago Orchestra HaU Tel: 
1-312-435-6666 

• Chicago Symphony Orchestra: 
with conductor Lawrence Foster 
and pianist Alfred Brendel perform 
works by Husa and Beethoven; 
8pm; Apr 11, 13. 16 (7.30pm) 

■ CLEVELAND 

EXHIBITION 

Cleveland Museum of Art Tel: 
1-216-421-7340 

• Pharaohs: Treasures of Egyptian 
Art from the Louvre: exhibition of 30 
works of Egyptian art from the 
Louvre. All important periods in 
3,000 years of Egyptian history are 
represented in toe show, which 
examines royal images in statues, 
reliefs and steles for insights into 
traditions and innovations in 
Egyptian art The exhibits include 
toe Predynastic Bull Palette, 
showing the king in the form of a 
bull trampling an enemy, and the 
Fourth Dynasty red quartzite Head 
of Djedefra; to Apr 14 

■ COLOGNE 

OPERA 

Opemhaus Tel; 49-221-2218240 

• Die Zauberflote: by Mozart 
Conducted by Georg Fischer and 
performed by the Oper Kflln. 

Soloists include Dieter Schweikart, 
Flamer Trost, Martina Riiping and 
Iride Martinez: 7.30pm; Apr 12 

■ COPENHAGEN 

OPERA 

Det Kongelige Teeter Tel: 45-33 
14 10 02 

• Saul and David: by Nielsen. 
Conducted by Poul Joergensen and 
performed by the Royal Danish 
Opera. Soloists indude Aage 
Haugland, Kurt Westi and Pod 
Elming: Bpm; Apr 11, 13 (1pm), 16, 
18 

■ DUBLIN 

CONCERT 

National Conceit HaR - Geoterss 
N&siunta Tel: 353-1-6711888 

• National Symphony Orchestra: 
with conductor Colman Pearce and 
pianist Joanna MacGregor perform 
works by Walton, Ravel and 
Borodin; Bpm; Apr 12 

■ DUISBURG 

OPERA 

Theater der stadt Duisburg Tel: 
49-203-30090 

• Ariadne auf Naxos: by R. 

Strauss. Conducted by Kodama 
and performed by the Deutsche 
Oper am Rhein; 7.30pm; Apr 10, 12 

■ DRESDEN 

CONCERT 

SAchsische Staatsoper Dresden 
Tel: 49-351-49110 

• Christoph Eschenbach and 
Tzimon Barter, the pianists perform 
works by R. Schumann/Debussy, 
Ravel and Messiaen; 8pm; Apr 11 

OPERA 

SAchsfsche Staatsoper Dresden 


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Tet 49-351-49110 

• Tristan und Isolde: by Wagner. 
Conducted by Christof Prick and 
performed by the Sachs ische 
Staatsoper Dresden. Soloists 
indude Anne Evans, Ker&tin Witt, 
Matti Salminen and Jukka 
Rasilainen; 5pm; Apr 8 

■ GLASGOW 

CONCERT 

Glasgow Royal Concert Hafl Tel; 
44-141-3326633 

• Royal Scottish National 
Orchestra: with conductor Leopold 
Hager and pianist Stephen Hough 
perform works by Scharwenka and 
Mahler; 7,30pm; Apr 13 

■ GOTHENBURG 

CONCERT 

GSteborgs Konserthus Tel: 
46-31-7787800 

• Gdteborgs Symfonlken with 
conductor Neeme Jfirvi and violinist 
C ho- Liang Lin perform Sibelius' 
Symphony No.7, Violin Concerto 
and Symphony No.5; 7.30pm; Apr 
10 

■ HAMBURG 

OPERA 

Hamburgischa Staatsoper Tel: 
49-40-351721 

• Carmen: by Bizet Conducted by 
Philippe Auguin and performed by 
the Hamburg Oper. Soloists indude 
Moser. Demerdjew. Nolde and 
Grundmann; 5pm; Apr 14. 20 (7pm) 

■ LAUSANNE 

CONCERT 

SaD© du MAtropole Tel: 
41-21-3122707 

• Orchestra de Chambre de 
Lausanne: with conductor Milan 
Horvat and pianist Andreas 
Haefkger perform works by Barttk, 
Beethoven and Mendelssohn; 
8.30pm; Apr 15, 16 (8pm) 

■ LEIPZIG 

CONCERT 

Gewancfiiaus zu Leipzig Tel: 
49-341-12700 

• Gewandhausorchester with 
conductor Herbert Biomstedt and 
soprano Felicity Lott perform works 
by R. Strauss and Brahms; 8pm; 
April. 12 

■ LINZ 

CONCERT 

Brucknerhaus Tel: 43-732-7612 

• Orchestra Philharmonique de 
Radio France: with conductor 
Marek Janowski and pianist 
Frangds-Rerte Duchable perform 
works by Roussel. Ravel, R. 
Schumann and Stravinsky: 7.30pm; 
Apr 13 

■ LISBON 

CONCERT 

Grande Auditdrio da Fundagdo 
Gidbenklan Tel: 351-1-7935131 

• Orquestra Gulbenkian: with 

conductor Rudolf Barahai and 
pianist Vladimir Fettsman perform 
Brahms’ Piano Concerto No.1 and 
Symphony No2; 6.30pm; Apr 12. 

13 (9.30pm) 

■ LONDON 

CONCERT 

Barbican HaU Tel: 44-171-6388891 

• National Youth Orchestra of 
Great Britain: with conductor Janos 
Fiirst and pianist Leon McCawley 
perform Mozart's Piano Concerto 
No-26 in D, K537 and Bruckner’s 
Symphony No.8; 7.30pm; Apr n 
Royal Festival HaU Tel: 
44-171-9604242 

• The Phahaimonia Orchestra: 
with conductor Leonard Siatkin, 
violinist Christopher Warren-Green 
and the New London Children's 
Choir perform works by Vaughan 





Nicholas McGagan, conducting (n Cardiff 

Williams, Casken and Holst; 

7.30pm; Apr 9'. 

Wigmore HaU Tel: 44-171-9352141 

• Anne Softs von Otter, 
accompanied by pianist Bengt 
Forsberg. The mezzo-soprano 
performs songs by Grieg, Schubert, . 
R. Schumann, Von Koch, 

Stenhammar and Peterson-Bergen 
7.30pm; Apr 11 

EXHIBITION 

Barbican Art Gallery Tel: 
44-171-6384141 

• Dlaghilev: Creator of the Ballets 
Russes: focusing on the work of 
Impresario Sergei DiagNlev 
(1872-1929), this exhibition shows 
toe development of his creative 
vision and dive. Beginning with his 
work in St Petersburg with The 
World of Art, a group of young 
Russian artists, the exhibition traces 
his move towards theatre and his 
introduction of Russian performing 
arts to Paris which culminated in 
the creation of the Ballets Russes. 

On show will be work from 
exhibitions organised by DiaghUev 
together with original costumes, 
theatre designs and documentary 
photographs from his productions; 
to Apr 14 

OPERA 

Queen Elizabeth Hafl Tel: 
44-171-9604242 

• Die Ring des Nibelungen: 

Siegfried: by Wagner. Conducted 
by Daniel Barenboim and 
performed by the Bayreuth Festival 
Chorus and Orchestra. Soloists 
include Siegfried Jerusalem, Helmut 
Pampuch, John Tomlinson, Anne 
Evans and Brigitta Svend&n; 5pm; 

Apr 7 

■ LYON 

CONCERT 

Opera de Lyon Tel: 33-72 00 45 00 

• Orchestra et Choeur de I'Op&ra 
de Lyon: with conductor Neville 
Mariner perform Mozart's Mass in 
C minor, K427 and Symphony 

No .35 (Haffner); 8.30pm; Apr 10 

■ MALIBU 

EXHIBITION 

The J. Paul Getty Museum Tel: 
1-310-450-7611 

• The Crucifixion in Medieval and 
Renaissance Manuscripts: this 
exhibition explores toe ways in 
which Christ's crucifixion was 
depicted In western Europe from 
toe 11th to toe 16th century. The 
visual interpretations of the 
crueflixion on vVew range from 
relatively straightforward 
descriptions of the moment of 
Jesus' death to highly embellished 
renderings that imply the whole of 
Christian history. The exhibition 
features 16 bound volumes and 2 
single pages: to Apr 7 

■ MILAN 

CONCERT 

Teatro alia Seala di Milano Tel: < 

39-2-72003744 

• Camarata K6ln: perform J.S. 

Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos i 

Nos. 1-6; 8pm: Apr 11, 13, 14 i 


■ MUNICH 

DANCE 

Naffonattheater Tel: 
49-89-21851920 

• Swan Lake: a choreography by 
Ray Barra after Petipa/ Jwanov to 
music by Tchaikovsky, performed 
by the S&yeruches Staatsbaflett; 
7.30pm; Apr 8, 16 
EXHIBITION 

VHIa Stuck Tel: 49-89-4555510 

• Mama Abramovic: retrospective 
exhibition of works by Marina 
Abramovic. The display includes 
video works, photographs of her 
performances, and other objects 
created by Abramovic over the last 
25 years. Also 12 instaQsttons are 
shown, of which “Cleaning toe 


Mirror* was created specially for 
this travelling exhibition which can 
be seen In Ghent and Lyon also; to 
Apr 8 
OPERA 

Nationaltheater Tel: 
49-89-21851920 ' 

. • La Bohdme: by Puccini. 
Conducted by Asher Fisch and 
performed by the Bayerische 
Staatsoper. Soloists include Miriam 
Gaud (Apr 13), Angela Gheorghiu 
(Apr 19), Julie Kaufman. Mario 
MaJagninl and Jeffrey Black; 
7.30pm; Apr 13, 19 

■ NEW YORK 

CONCERT 
Avery Fisher Hall Tet 
1 -212-875-5030 

• New York Philharmonic: with 
conductor Valery Gergiev and 
violinist Glenn Dicterow perform 
works by Rfmsky-Koreakov, 
Chanson, Ravel and Prokofiev; 
8pm; Apr 11. 12 £2pm), 13, 16 
(7.30pm) 

EXHIBITION 

The Metropolitan Museum of Art 

Tel: 1-212-879-5500 

• Pergamon: The TeJephos Frieze 
from the Great Altar exhibition of 
rare and renowned works of 
Hellenistic sculpture from the 2nd 
century BC. Twelve newly restored 
relief sculptures from the Tefephos 
frieze that once decorated toe 
interior court of the Great Altar of 
Pergamon are on display, along 
with 30 other works that help 
explain the origins! purpose and 
placement of toe Tefephos frieze. 
Included are statues, fragmentary 
sculpture and architecture of the 
Great Altar, a portrait head of an 
Attalid king, and a series of 
portraits on coins. The works come 
from the collection of the Pergamon 
Museum in Berlin; to Apr 14 
JAZZ & BLUES 

Avery Fisher Hafl Tel: 
1-212-875-5030 

• Battle Royale: a concert jam 
session with trumpeter Wynton 
Marsalis and other jazz musicians, 
including John Fadcfis, Nicholas 
Payton, Roy Hargrove and Cyrus 
Chestnut; 8pm; Apr 12 

OPERA 

Metropolitan Opera House Tel: 
1-212-362-6000 

• La Boheme: by Puccini. 
Conducted by Simone Young and 
performed by toe Metropolitan 
Opera Soloists include Angela 
Gheorghiu, Karita Mattlla. Roberto 
Alagna and William Shimell; 8pm; 
Apr 10. 13 

■ OSAKA 

CONCERT 

Festival HaU Tel: 6-231-6985 

• Nagoya Philharmonic Orchestra: 
with conductin' Taijiro limori and 
pianist Juliana Markova perform 
works by Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev 

and Wagner. Part of the 38th Osaka 
International Festival: 7pm; Apr 
10 

■ OSLO 

CONCERT 

Oslo Konserthus Tel: 

47-22-833200 

• Oslo Filharmonteka Qrkester: 
with conductor Lerf Segeratam and 
pianist John LW perform works by 
Segerstam, Beethoven and Nielsen; 
7.30pm: Apr 11. 12 
EXHIBITION 
NasjonafgaHertet Tel: 

47-22-200404 

• Francisco Goya. Paintings - 
Drawings - Prints: exhibition 
devoted to the Spanish painter and 
graphic artist Francisco Goya 
(1746-1828). Most of the exhibits 
come from the collections of the 
Prado Museum in Madrid and the 
Metropolitan Museum in New York. 
Highlights Include the paintings 
“The Parasol" and “Self-portrait 
(1815)". The exhibition includes 30 
paintings, 52 drawings and 91 


prints; to Apr 14 


■ PARIS 

CONCERT ^ „ __ 

Selle Pteyel Tel: 33-1 45 61 53 00 

• Radu Lupu: the pianist performs 
sonatas by Beethoven and 
Schubert; 8.30pm; Apr 12 
Thtifttre des Champfr-Eiysftea Tel: 

33-1 49 52 50 50 

• Ensemble Orchestral de Paris: 
wtft conductor Rudolf Barehai and 
pianist EHsso Vrrssaiadze perform 
works by Shostakovich, Mozart and 
Haydn; 8.30pm; Apr 9 


CAnmiiun 

Musde if Art Modem© de la ViBe 

de Parts Tel: 33-1 53 67 40 00 
• Felix GonzaJaz-Tocres: exhibition 
featuring works by the young 
American artist, who makes use of 
a variety of techniques, Including 
photography, drawing, text and 
silk-screen printing; from Apr 11 to 
Jun 16 


■ PITTSBURGH 

CONCERT 

Heinz Hafl for the Performing Arte 
Tel: 1-412-392-4900 
• Pittsburgh Symphony: with 
conductor Lorin Maazel, pianist 
Awadagfn Pratt and Andres 
Cardenas perform works by Read, 
Saint-Sagns, Stock and Scriabin; 
8pm; Apr 12, 13, 14 C2-30pm) 


■ QUEBEC CITY 

CONCERT 

La Grand Tfttatre de Qufrbeo Tel: 
1-418-644-8921 

• Maxim Vengerov: toe violinist 
performs works by Mozart. 
Beethoven, Prokofiev end 
Shostakovich; Bpm; Apr 9 

■ ROME 

CONCERT 

Aecademia Nazionale di Santa 
Cecilia Tel: 39-6-361 1 064 

• Orchestra dell' Aecademia di 
Santa Cedfla: with conductor 
Vladimir Spivatov perform works by 
Cherubini, Mozart and Haydn; 
5.30pm; Apr 14, 15 (9pm), 16 
(7.30pm) 

■ SAN FRANCISCO 

EXHIBITION 

Cafifomia Plaza of the Legion of 
Honor Tel: 1-415-863-3330 

• John James Audubon: travelling 
exhibition of John Jamas 
Audubon's original watered ours for 
The Birds of America”. Featured 
are 90 large-scale works from the 
complete set of 431 In the 
collection of The New York 
Historical Society; to Apr 14 

■ STOCKHOLM 

OPERA 

Kungflga Teatem - Royal 
Swedish Opera House TeL 
46-8-7914300 

• Le Nazze di Figaro: by Mozart 
Conducted by Markus Lehtinen and 
performed by the Royal Swedish 
Opera. Soloists include Peter 
Mattel, Lena Hod, Per-Ame 
Wahlgren and Anita Sddh; 7pm; 

Apr 12 

■ TURIN 

EXHIBITION 

Palazzo Bricherasio Tel: 

39-11-5171573 

• Fernand L6ger the Object and 
its Context 1920-1940: exhibition 
devoted to the object as a theme in 
the work of Fernand Lfrger. 
Alongside works created by Ldger 
between 1920 and 1940 the display 
shows works by his 
contemporaries, including artists 
such as Dali, De Chirico, Depart), 
Duchamp, Magritte, Marandl, Man 
Ray, Max Ernst Mir6, Oppenheim, 
Picasso, Savinto, Schwitters and 
Severini. The show Includes 
paintings, gouaches, drawings and 
film; to Apr 15 

■ VIENNA 

CONCERT 

Konzerthaus Tet 43-1-7121211 

• Janos Starker and Alain Plante: 
the cellist and pianist perform 
works by Koddy, Bartok, R. 
Schumann and Brahms; 7.30pm; 

Apr 10 

OPERA 

Wiener Volfcsoper Tel: 

43-1 -51 4442960 

• Die ZauberflGta: by Mozart 
Conducted by Wolfgang Boztc and 
performed by the Wiener Volfcsoper. 
Soloists Include Viktoria Loutdanetz, 
Ikiiko Raimondi, Kurt Rydl and 
Benedikt Kobe!; 7pm; Apr 8 

■ WASHINGTON 

CONCERT 

Concert Hafl Tel: 1-202-467 4600 

• National Symphony Orchestra: 
with conductor Roger Norrington 
perform works by Holland, Mozart, 
Beethoven and Elgar; 8 -30pm; Apr 
11,12,13 

■ ZURICH 

CONCERT 

Tonhafle Tel: 41-1-2063434 

• TonhaHe-Orchester: with 
conductor Kurt Sanderiing perform 
works by Mozart and Schubert; 
7.30pm; Apr 11. 12 

OPERA 

Opemhaus ZOricti Tefc 41-1-268 


• Samson at DaKa: by 
Salnt-SaSns, Conducted by Serge 
Saudo and performed by the Oper 
ZOrfch. Soloists include Agnes 
Baltsa, Giorgio Merfghi and Giorgio 
Zancanaro; 7.30pm; Apr 11, 14 
(8pm), 18 

Listing compiled and supplied bv 
A/tSase The International Arts 
Database, Amsterdam. The 
Netoerfencfs. Copyright 1996. All 
rights reserved Tet 31 20 664 


IlSD 





1 


/■ J 


WEEKEND APRIL 6/APRIL 7/APRIL S W96 




James Morgan 


Biggies and the bleating bulldog 


Those were the days - of modesty, responsibility and British stiff upper lips 


L ast week's charity has 
turned cold. Le Figaro in 
Paris sneered that the mad 
cow affair had made 
Britain seek help from Europe “in 
the name of the dream it bad 
refused to back and a solidarity ft 
had derided". Figaro was not 
alone. 

Bat few would accuse the British 
press of solidarity. Its leading tab- 
loid, The Sun, was uncompromis- 
ing. “We may appear to have more 
cases of BSE than France," it said, 
and it was right. The British 
161,000 do in a sense appear more 
than the 13 French. 

But, The Sun told us, that is 
“because we are more honest; The 
French secretly bury their cases”. 
The Daily Express quoted a British 


vet who said they called BSE "JCB 
disease”. In Britain a JCB is an 
earth-mover and corpse bnrier. But 
“JCB disease" translates strangely. 
maladie de I'engm de terrassement 
must flow uneasily from the month 
of the Breton dairy farmer who 
provides the Express with its news. 

From The Sunday Telegraph we 
learned of more Iniquity. A Euro- 
subsidy to help Britain cull cows 
would be treacherously “clawed 
back". The editor told as that 
Europe's Common Agricultural 
Policy was the real villain of the 
affair. An accompanying article 
expanded on Euro-trickery - the 
writer said he once saw a Flemish 
farmer mixing angel dust, what- 
ever that is, with his animal feed. 

Back in The Sun, the former cab- 


inet minister. Lord Tebbit, pro- 
claimed that BSE stood for 
“Britain Stuffed by Europe". In the 
Express . Sir Bernard Ingham, Bar- 
oness Thatcher's former press sec- 
retary, explained that this was 
because of Europe's “inferiority 
complex" towards Britain- 

People wrote in wanting to see 
the colour of Europe’s money. 
Members of parliament spoke of 
Europe's plot to bring down 
Britain's agriculture. So the two 
patriotic themes of the past fort- 
night evolved: blame the foreigner 
and demand bis cash. 

Some readers may. like me, have 
been reared on a literary diet of 
Biggies and GjL Henty. The for- 
mer was a gallant airman and 
detective, James Biggiesworth, 


who outwitted the King's enemies 
from the Somme to Singapore. The 
latter told tales of schoolboys who 
could, with a piece of string and a 
catapult, save their friends from 
certain death at the hands of Nep- 
tune or a Fnzzy-Wuzzy. 

Biggies and Henty were not, as 
the shrewder reader will have 

deduced, politically correct. Bat 
they knew what it meant to be 
British. It meant taking the blame, 
even when unfairly blamed; it 
meant no recriminations, it meant 
quiet modesty, accepting responsi- 
bility for one's actions, relying on 
oneself to get ont of a mess, and it 
meant not talking about money. 

In a politically correct world, 
everyone has the right to be a vic- 
tim. Everyone has the right to 


other people's money to compen- 
sate for self-inflicted wounds. And 
patriotism is to bleat about for- 
eigners whose sole aim is to do us 
down. 

Today Sir James Biggiesworth 
MC is the Conservative Member of 
Parliament for Derring & Pluck. In 
a speech to the House on Mad Cow 
day he said: “We are faced today 
with a crisis of our own. albeit 
unwitting, making. It may have 
been exacerbated by foreigners but 
we recognise that the actions they 
have taken conform with their 
national interest. And we accept 
that these have saved us from the 
humiliation of seeing Salvador ban 
our meat one day and Somalia the 
next 

“We all recognise that mistakes. 


quite Innocently, have been made. 
We shall overcome their conse- 
quences as we have overcome 
other crises in cur long history: by 
ourselves, and with our own 
resources. If that means sacrifices, 
so be it If that means lifting bur- 
dens from tbe few and placing 
them on the shoulders of the 
many, so be it H there be guilty 
men let them come forward - hut 
we seek no scapegoats. This may 
not be our finest hour, let history 
not judge it our least worthy.” 

This, of course, is pure fiction: 
who would have voted for someone 
who could spout such nonsense 
and so flagrantly undermine his 
country’s interests? 

■ James Morgan is BBC World 
Service economics us respondent 


Interview 


A real life in front of a screen 


Peter Aspden 

meets Sherry 
Turkle to talk 
about the 
Internet effect 

M eet Julia, who will 
be your companion 
for the evening. 
She will not be 
devoted exclu- 
sively to you, for she believes in 
spreading her affections. It is part 
of her charm. She also has a snappy 
line in quips and plenty of attitude. 
On a good day, she can even fool 
you into thinking she is human. 

Julia is a computer programme, 
or more accurately a “hot”, strut- 
ting her stuff on the Internet She 
connects from her Pittsburgh base 
to the online community indistin- 
guishably from a human player. 
Players can talk to her, she talks 
back. They gesture, she gestures 
back. She functions by looking for 
particular strings of characters in 
messages typed to her. and answers 
back appropriately. She is also able 
to admit ignorance and if confused, 
changes the subject 
Many rational, intelligent human 
beings spend hours in front of a 
screen talking to characters like 
Julia. Of course, they do not have to 
be themselves: they can be a man 
posing as a woman, an apparently 
docile character trying out some 
wild sexual fantasies, an alien from 
another planet 

Another computer programme, 
DEPRESSION 10. is trying to help 
people cure their psychological 
problems. They talk to the machine 
about their needs, the computer is 
programmed to respond. They go 
away feeling refreshed, unbur- 
dened. If they need another perspec- 
tive. they can go online and talk it 
through with fellow net-surfers. 
Who needs real human contact? 

Such is virtual life on-screen: 
compelling, seductive, full of limit- 
less possibilities. According to 
Sherry Turkle’s new book. Life On 
The Screen *. it is an exciting way of 
re-defining ourselves as the millen- 
nium draws to a close. To others, it 
is a high-tech heU on earth. 

I met Turkle just after she bad 
endured a tough session on the 
BBC's Start The Week. "I am feeling 
very defensive. Everyone was 
talking about this terrible addic- 
tion, bow it is all like a drug, and 
I'm just sitting there slightly jet- 
lagged..." 

A rare pause in her fluent, fast- 
speaking conversation. Surely you 
can understand people's worries, I 
asked. 

“Of course, but I think it all has 
to do with how a thing looks in its 
early days. If we had set up this 
interview by telephone, we wouldn’t 
be sitting here saying, *My God we 
were in the virtual reality of a tele- 
phone conversation!’. We are pretty 
comfortable integrating telephone 
calls with real life because we ore 
used to it. 

“People talk on the Internet, then 
they set up a coffee date in the real, 
then they go back. I could say to 
you, who are in my physical life. 



Sherry Turkle: It is part at her argianent that computer culture is making more concrete the way In which our fives have become fragmented 


Mrtey tahmood 


look there is an online discussion 
group which I think you'd be inter- 
ested in, and I am bringing you into 
my virtual life. You are not being 
'sucked into the Internet'.” - she 
caricatures the extreme images of 
her opponents - "but we are com- 
fortably negotiating and navigating 
the multiple windows which mod- 
em life consists of." 

It is part of Turkle’s argument 
that computer culture - and the 
Internet, in particular - is making 
more concrete the way in which our 
lives have become fragmented. The 
“windows" on the computer screen 
perfectly reflect the various roles 
we are asked to play in life. But 
wasn’t it difficult for people to cope 
with? 

“But most people do it every day 
anyway. You wake up as a lover, 
have breakfast as a mother, drive to 
work as a lawyer. That is what we 
are stuck with in modem life. We 
no longer live in a world in which 
women have limited roles, staying 
at home during the day, wearing 
white gloves on certain social occa- 
sions. Those days are over. 


“We already have an experience 
of role-playing and fragmentation. 
The Internet gives us images of 
thinking about identity whereby a 
healthy personality is one which 
can move easily and fluidly between 
many aspects of seif.” 

Turkle, a professor of sociology at 
the Massachusetts Institute of Tech- 
nology, made it all sound naturaL 
Sbe said it was important to 
embrace the fact we lived in a world 
of greater multiplicity. But didn’t 
most people thunk that social life 
had something to do with physical 
interaction? Wasn't the computer 
screen a poor substitute? 

“They are right - but we have 
lost the ’great good places’ where 
people used to meet - the cafe. the 
local bistro - and it is not the fault 
of tbe computer. The breakdown of 
community predates computer cul- 
ture. You can sit in an ersatz cafe in 
a shopping mall, but you don't 
know anyone, it is just a reminder 
of what a cafe used to be when we 
s till had communities. 

“The point about the great good 
place is that there were people 


there that you knew. Now when I 
go online to a discussion group 
about parenting, for example, I see 
people..." 

I interrupt: not “see" exactly? 

“No. excuse me, I mean meet peo- 
ple in their virtuality, meet their 
online presences. It is not the same 
as meeting them in the real, but 
there is a continuity in the relation- 
ships. People are going online to 
meet a need which is missing 
offline." 

In her book. Turkle talks of her 
own formative experiments with 
playing with her identity: when she 
studied in Paris, she found that the 
“French Sherry" did things which 
the American Sherry did not I said 
that being a different person in 
Paris sounded a lot more fun than 
being a different person on a screen. 

She laughed out loud. “I really 
don’t think that one is going to 
replace the other." 

But there were only so many 
hours in the day- Didn't sitting in 
front of a screen have an imprison- 
ing effect? 

“The screen is extremely compel- 


ling. But so is the novel. The novel 
was invented, people waved chil- 
dren away from it because it dis- 
tracted them, it took them away 
from serious history and the Bible. 
And in the end, we have Shake- 
speare, tbe novel, the screen. People 
find a way of mixing things. Tbe 
screen can be used in lots of ways. 
It is a personal and cultural 
choice." 

“My research shows that the time 
children spend in front of a screen 
is taken away from the time they 
spend watching television. Now if 
you ask me if it is better for a child 
to sit online, writing inter-active fic- 
tion with people all over the world 
or passively watching television..." 

A rhetorical raising of the eye- 
brows. Then back into defensive 
mode, as the morning’s accumu- 
lated scepticism began to weigh. 

“Look, I am a humanist. I am 
very sympathetic to people’s wor- 
ries. I am glad to meet you here in 
person and that we are not doing 
this interview by lax. I am on the 
side of the angels. But there is 
something positive going on here.” 


I asked her about the depression 
prog ramm e, and of the use people 
made of the Internet to try to solve 
their personality problems. Didn’t 
some people who coped happily on 
tbe Internet find it hard to switch 
back to real life? 

“I call it the Cyrano effect He 
went into the virtual reality of let- 
ter writing. He won the girl, but he 
canid never believe he was the guy 
who wrote the letters.” she said. 

Yes, it did happen, but there were 
also plenty of positive experiences. 
“Tbe people who do best are the 
people who approach it with all the 
tools of self-reflection and self- 
observation that they bring to any- 
thing." 

But wasn’t talking about your 
problems to a computer rather sad? 

“Even 10 years ago people 
thought it was obscene. But now 
the common reaction is - can I try 
it? People are no longer comparing 
it with talking to an analyst, but 
with self-help books, and it lodes a 
lot better.” 

Then how about sex on the Inter- 
net (known as TinySex)? Was this a 
good idea? It surely wasn't very 
wholesome - Turkle writes in the 
book of the fierce debate among the 
onlin e community on “virtual rape" 

- projecting a rape fantasy an to a 
victim via messages on screen. 

A long pause, and for the first 
time she measured her wa rds very 
carefully. “Whenever there is a new 
technology, its first use is for some 
form of sexual expression or stimu- 
lation. All we are talking about is 
people typing dirty to each other. A 
lot of things are happening online, 
and some of it is people writing 
erotic messages. 

“But is it any worse than phone 
sex? Or dirty movies? Or having 
promiscuous sex in tbe age of 
Aids?" 

She said sex on the Internet made 
people think afresh about ideas 
such as infidelity and jealousy. 
“Some people don’t mind if then- 
partner just does it on screen. My 
favourite position, because I think I 
identify with it, is the one which 
says. ‘I can understand one night in 
a motel room because she’s more 
beautiful, she’s younger, whatever 

- but talking to someone erotically! 
That’s the best part, the most inti- 
mate part’." 

I asked her how much time she 
spent in front of her screen. 

“Like many people, most of my 
working life is spent on screen. And 
for research purposes I join all 
kinds of online groups. But I do lots 
of other things." 

Did she stQ] go to cafes? 

“I love going to cafes, but I don’t 
kid myself. If you are trying to cap- 
ture the good old days by going to a 
cate called Bonjour Croissant in the 
middle of a mall, and get served by 
someone wearing a fake French 
beret, I mean that is not Paris. 

“If you offer me that experience 
versus going online to a virtual 
co mm u n ity where a group of people 
have been talking about a set of 
common themes over the past six 
months, I know which feels more 
•real’ to me." 

* Life on the Screen : Identity in the 
Age of the Internet by Sherry Turkle, 
Weidenfeld & Nicolson. £18.99. 


T o Elizabeth Bennet, twirl- 
ing artfully round Darcy, 
or to Anna Karenina, lost 
in a mazurka with Vron- 
sky. the idea that ballroom dancing 
could be turned into a competitive 
sport would have seemed ridicu- 
lous. 

In those days it was a spectacle 
and an art. of course, but open to 
all: a bridge of intimacy between 
the sexes; controlled touching in 
public- It was also high romance. 
When Tolstoy's Natasha (in War 
and Peace), went to her first grand 
ball “...she felt her eyes grow 
misty: she could not see clearly, her 
pulse was beating a hundred to the 
minu te and the blood throbbed at 
her heart”. 

I know how she felt, but for those 
of us who dance in competitions, 
the pulse often beats for quite dif- 
ferent reasons. 

Although ballroom dancing sur- 
vived into the 1950s as a social plea- 
sure and a necessity for meeting the 
opposite sex. it has since become 
almost socially extinct. 

U made way for rock ’n’ roil, 
which in turn led to the many 


Quickstep to the Olympics 

Alice Brickwood describes her lifelong affair with ballroom dancing 


forms of solitary disco dancing that 
removed ail etiquette and structure, 
seen by some as liberating. I think 
it is a tragedy. 

Now the old art, which survives 
mainly in societies and clubs, is 
becoming popular again, especially 
after the hugely successful film. 
Strictly Ballroom. The number of 
dance schools in the UK has 
increased enormously during the 
last five or six years to more than 
8.000. At Cambridge University, 
where I gained a half blue in danc- 
ing, the largest society, with more 
than 2,000 members, is the Cam- 
bridge Dancers’ Club. 

In recognition of its popular 
appeal and 14 years of lobbying, 
ballroom dancing is likely to be 
given full Olympic status next year, 
after completing a two-year proba- 
tionary period. 

Last week there was much discus- 


sion about the fact this would bring 
with it the rather sad requirement 
of random drug testing. Drugs such 
as amphetamines, steroids and 
diuretics are unlikely to be taken by 
ballroom dancers. But caffeine is 
also prohibited. This will be a big 
problem. A day’s competition, with 
all of the qualifying rounds, may 
last more than 12 hours. While 
waiting to be called, we drinkvast 
quantities of tea and coffee. 

I started dancing as a young girl 
for purely romantic reasons. My 
father bribed my brother to partner 
me. Jason was a rare breed: he gave 
me three evenings a week and the 
weekends, on coaches full of moth- 
ers and hair spray being shipped to 
competitions. 

As I got older, the main objective 
was to find a man. The man always 
leads on the dance floor, and the 
lady, as in the famous quotation 


1 


about Ginger Rogers, has to do 
everything the gentleman does, 
only going backwards and In Sin 
heels. 

But despite all the excitement of 
competition, one of the most 
enchanting aspects of dancing is 
now, as it was for Elizabeth and 
Natasha, going to the ball. 

The Christmas balls of the Cam- 
bridge club were always the most 
luxurious of the dancing year. With 
an expectant heart a new gown and 
a man in black tie at our side, we 
would step from our carriages into 
a room filled with the magic of a 
past era. About 600 dancers are spi- 
ralling round. For five hours the 
music plays. The clumsiness of an 
inexperienced polka partner Is all 
forgiven in the pleasure of waltzing 
in the arms of a man you care for. 

From time to time a god of the 
dance floor appears. In my years, he 


was tall proud, athletic and Ger- 
man. He merely stood in front of 
yon to present his arm; words were 
unnecessary. Dancing with him was 
like floating - one scarcely dared to 
breath. When he danced Latin, be it 
with the most beautiful woman, it 
was impossible to keep your eyes 
off him - he was arrogant and 
proud, truly masterful. 

As in every sport, dancers must 
start at the beginning and in Cam- 
bridge that came in the form of 
Glennis and Robin’s Absolute 
Beginners classes. You did not need 
a partner to go there and after each 
dance, you changed partner any- 
way. I was lucky enough then to 
find myself on the university team, 
dancing waltz with a talented and 
charming man, Sydney. Dancing on 
the team gives you a regular part- 
ner and weekly private lessons. But 
we spent up to 20 hours a week in 


practice. Syd and I were delighted 
to win the first of our competitions. 
These were more terrifying than I 
remembered them as a child. But 
we had the hair spray on the coach 
just the same. 

Then came the Varsity Match: 
with arduous training and intricate 
steps, choreographed for the waltz, 
quickstep, jive and cha-cha. We aim 
learned to “walk-on" and how to 
apply the fake tan. The top eight 
couples are selected only the night 
before the competition so emotions 
run high. The top couples from 
Oxford, but only the top ladies from 
Cambridge partnerships, can he 
awarded a half blue. For, unlike the 
Olympics committee, the Cam- 
bridge University Men’s Blues Com- 
mittee does not think it is a sport 

Now I have a job, it is less easy to 
find opportunities to dance. One of 
my favourite places in London is 
the Palm Court at the Waldorf 
Hotel which holds tea dances at the 
weekend. Only a few younger danc- 
ers go there, but the room is always 
packed for tea. So, this weekend the 
Waldorf; in a few years, perhaps, 
the Olympics in Sydney. 


Cows 

and 

mad 



M y first flight in an air- 
craft was as a 22 -year- 
old national service- 
man bound from 
England for Cyprus, then in the Iasi 
stages of British rule. 

1 remember the flight mainly, 
however, because it oast me my vir- 
ginity as a life-long vegetarian. The 
chicken lunch served to the troops 
was so delicious that I have relished 
chicken and meat ever since. 

My mother, who had supervised 
my vegetarianism, would have 
regretted my betrayal of what she 
saw as a clean, ethical and superior^ 
way of life. . ‘ 

She had also instilled In me a 
deep distrust of orthodox medicine 
- when ill we always consulted a 
popular Lancashire herbalist - and 
it was another year after eating 
chicken before I bravely popped my 
first aspirin. 

On diet and doctoring we were for 
years regarded as cranks by rela- 
tives and friends. Iu retrospect. 
thou gh, my- mother was a woman 
ahead of her time. Many of her atti- 
tudes on meat eating and health 
care have become highly fashion- 
able. 

Sensitivity and amateur dietetics 
were at the root of her vegetarian- 
ism. She never forgot her distress 
when as a young girl she took hens 
to be put to the knife. 

So when she married my father, 
already a veggie by conviction, she 
had no difficulty in embracing his 
credo. It was rooted in the progres- 
siveness of the age, part of a nexus 
of thought which embraced social- 
ism, theosophy, eugenics, naturism 
and a general belief in the onward 
march of mankind. 

My mother’s heroes were George 
Bernard Shaw and Gandhi She was 
less proud of the fact that Adolf 
Hitler was also a flesh abstainer. 
But she used to mention his name, 
too. 

Our faith was buttressed by a 
subscription to the Vegetarian Mes- 
senger. a monthly medley of reci- 




Holidays were 
usually at a 
vegetarian 
guest house 
run by a 
Quaker couple 


pes, horror stories about meat eat- 
ing and cruelty to livestock, news 
about great vegetarians throughout 
the ages, and adverts for vegetarian 
hotels, guest houses and camps. 

The meatlessness pervaded my 
early life. During the second world 
war, our meat rations were replaced 
by extra eggs and cheese coupons. 
(Fortunately, we did not practise 
Veganism, which abhors both eggs 
and dairy foods.) 

Daily dinn ers at Bury Grammar 
School Lancashire, invariably con- 
tained meat They seemed so awful 
that my class mates envied me 
lunching at home every day. 

Holidays were usually at a vege- 
tarian guest house run by a Quaker 
couple, Kate and Arthur Ludlow, at 
Crich, south Derbyshire. Unlike 
many other such establishments, 
the food was ample and tasty, domi- 
nated by nut and lentil prepara- 
tions. 

Decades before muesli became a 
household word in B ritain, we ®*»re 
tucking into cereals, raises, 
almonds and hazel nuts drenched in 
syrnp. 

In addition to a sprinkling of 
Jews and Moslems anxious to avoid 
eating the wrong kind of meat at 
any price, most of the other guests 
were progressive school teachers 
from Sheffield, Nottingham or other 
northern cities who liked nothing 
more than a tramp in the Peak Dis- 
trict Local villagers used to nail us 
the “Ludlow Loonies” or “Plus 
Fours and No Breakfast”. 

I particularly remember a won- 
derful old man called Louis Beet- 
hoven Prout, a fanatical advocate of 
the theory that Francis Bacon was 
William Shakespeare. A mine of 
information on our daily rambles, 
he could identify every flower and 
plant in the hedgerow. And there 
was a gorgeous Persian lady, railed 
Rozhanak Purkazh, whose beauty 
was as unforgettable as her 
name. 

My diet followed me to Oxford 
University, although here the faith 
began to tire a little. 

To cater for my oddity, the col- 
lege butler dutifully purchased mea- 
tless sausages for me at a health 
food shop at the bottom of the High 
Street. They were awful, a fact 
which no doubt prepared me for my 
conquest by chicken at 30,000ft. 

That was more than 40 years ago. 
The world has turned turtle. There 
is at least one vegetarian alterna- 
tive in nearly every hotel aitf res- 
taurant in the land. The Fiiiaffcial 
Times canteen’s Chris tmas menu 
last year offered Nut Wellington. 
And now, to cap it all butchers’ 
shops are deserted, McDonald’s, 
pending supplies of Dutch beef, 
advertised veggieburgers. and doc- 
tors are competing with hordes of 
homeopaths, acupuncturists and 
herbalists. My mother would have 
approved. 

Maurice Samuelson 



► ! i 






: >Vsr. 


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FINANCIAL times WEEKEND APRIL 6/APRIL 7/APRIL 8 1 996 


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ASM 

Alpha Akpons 

SpS* 

VKdMKtey 


350 

Cham 

urn 

Wnfeesdv 

. 

- 

.DewNffi Roup 

Taxt 

Tuesday 

(US 

2 XO 

EefeHQp 

fag 

Duster 

830 

(LTD 

Hendemn Am Cap 4 fee Tu 

taTr 

Tuesday 

. 

. 

'fetmnadtatB CapM Gkav 

0 th) 

Wednesday 

378 

7.75 

‘Mon Bm Group 

Rate 

Wednesday 

350 

050 

Nutb S Fncocfc 

HaM 

Tfenfty 

2 . 1 G 

AM 

Raffibcm Brofam 

OtFfi 

Thursday 

3410 

850 

Rena 

.DM 

Ufetfemday 

- 

- . 

FUwold 

BdMa 

Wednesday 

150 

450 

' Sanky Faratag Group a 

Wr 

Wednesday 

- 

340 

- .Strata tMenon) Group t 

POP 

Wednesday 

0514 

0530 

SnaoNfiaU 

HnG 

Thurcday 

270 

350 

TRACKER Nstsrak 

Abi 

Friday 

- 

- 

■ Today & Ctfbie 

Bto 

Tuesday 

- 

- 

Twte 

BdMa 

Ttuaday 

- 

050 

Yule Catto & CD 

Chan 

Wednesday 

250 

450 

! BfTBM DIVIDENDS 

Ctadtajr Group HMqs * 

PWP 

Thuroday 


178 


320 


Uuray VCT 
.PnssMcK HHgs 
Toye & Co 


DA Wednesday 
EKE Thursday 
Text Tfiureday 


Company 

Sector 

Haff 
year to 

Pre-tax 
prafil 0009 

btertn dnUandf 
per share (pT 

BWI 

Eng 

Jan 

2440 (2,120) 

35 * 05 *) 

Samoa Groq> 

a* 

Nw 

3400 L 039 

- 01a 

BHnra 

HRh 

Dec 

108 L (148 I) 

- H 

Chelsea VBags 4 §§ 

Ml 

Jan 822 L * 0,100 *) 

- tl. 

- Cm Irsvanca 

taic 

Sep 

373 {-) 

- M 

Ex-Lands Praps 

Prop 

Dec 

973 L 081 ) 

- H 

Frogmcrs Estates 

Fnp 

Dec 

6510 ( 7700 ) 

4.1 ( 4 J)) 

' TMfead DM 

BdMa 

Doe . 

M (Wto) ' 

125 00) 

Vfiffbnl DeUfcries 

MBs 

Feb 

22500 ( 23 , 700 ) 

25 ( 1-9 

MBMGMv 

teir 

fo&t 

12858 0759 

- H 

Lloyds Chemists 

Re&i 

Dec 

25500 ( 28500 ) 

3.1 ( 25 ) 

“ Lyons tisfi t 4 

WA 

Mar 

4 M 0 .WMI 

75 055 ). 

.McKEChrtta 

B« 

Jan 

21500 (20509 

65 05 ) 

OdlM SAHcaO 

toiy 

FOOt 

1697 ( 1065 ) 

- H 

TR Far East henna 

unr 

Fabt 

1825 ( 1485 ) 

15 • ( 15 ) 

Tram Computers 

spsv 

NO* 

- 80 (229 

- 055 ) 

Wadderfaum Sacs 

AM 

Nov 

260 L (170 l) 

• W 


{Figures in parentheses ere for the connspcnding period.) 'DtvMends are 
^hown net pence per share, except where otherwise Indicated. Ldoss. f Net 
asset value per share. $ Hsh punts and penes. % 28-wosk figures. <p US 
ctoBara and cents. 9 Second Interim; makes 32p to data. §§ Comparatives 
tor 12 months. V Co mpar atives for 9 months. § Comparatives for 7 months. 
# Special distribution. * Foreign Income dividend. 6 Comparatives for 38 
weeks. 4 7-month figures.-* 46-month figures. * Attar tax, 4 Includes 
special of Up. f Includes special of 0.74p. 


■ Last weak** preliminary results 

Year Pre-tax Earnings* 

Gammy Sector to profit (£000) par share fp) 




Yaar 

Rro4Pt 

Otrapeny 

Sector to 

profit (£000) 

a fader Quoted Cm 

tar 

foot 

1882 (1380 

Nhcan Lstes 

■M 

Sop 

150BL (IBS) 

.AM CttMrilng 

fag 

Dec 

SMB 07<9 

8nM Gw 

Mb 

DW 

*300 pom 

Bannswad A 

un- 

Oect 

1335 (1174* 

n— — 

nw 

Ok 

non (MM9 

DocMeyi 

Mb 

Dk 

581 L 041) 

Bnata 

Mb 

JH 

25 a am 

ufoh rijuiliitnn 

won ureoDny 

BdKa 

Bsc 

1510 0UO) 

.AtoonEsaas 

Fnp 

Dk 

mm pam 

Brooks Smtca 

Spfa 

Dk 

1580 (719 

flmtoGMM 

■ 

Dk 

sun 0OSO9 

OA Group 

■sd 

Dk 

8588 0360) 

CLSWip 

Frog 

Dk 

8*0 (0200 

Uor&ap 

GssO 

fee 

3M00 (40500) 


DM 

fee 

*020 «m 

-fasbTtad 

Prop 

fee 

10580 (10760) 

CfepMr 

110 

Dk 

2M CDQ 

.QmRxd Group 

Mb 

Dk 

53a L 079} 

CUM Com f 

MM 

Dk 

Van (09 

-Ciy Cectn fast 

8FU 

Dk 

15500 (14,189 

CMat»0ncsj 

Dm 

fee 

OML AMI 

Qydttnt 

Tns 

fee 

57» 0829 


m 

fee 

ITS (Ml) 

Cn & Bees 

Chan 

Dk 

41 L 041 I) 

tlpK+MI MOM 

DM 

Dk 

5»6 HM9 

Dencoo M 

OS 

fee 

1530 (1709 

Ftaal Rupsilss 

pqp 

Dk 

IMi 0301) 

F&mSoo t 

fafd 

Dk 

16500 0430 

Rw SRM (Ms ♦ 

wnr 

fed 

■05 0870 

GBEbS 

fal 

Dk 

UM 0380 1) 

GtonEsflMrtg 

*1 

Dk 

MM 049 

-jiPut Gniro 

fate 

Jk 

M® aim 

’fatatagi 

0M 

Dk 

8H 022 U 

Mnton 

uc 

In 

■TOO 04509 

HetacH 

CbM 

Dk 

*o*i wm 

tenfag 

fal 

Dk 

31,100 00609 

BC 

taM 

fee 

12400 00,160 

irattecht 

WA 

Dk 

8560 0180 

MMbs * SS 

M 

Dk 

U20 020 

kaaom Teds 

nth 

0k 

VWL (IJtol) 

MlttalferTSU 

tan 

Mt 

1*65 H 

JBA 

fate 

Dk 

8710 0130 

jams 

IftC 

Dk 

608 08801} 

Kyroch Gmp 

m 

Dk 

11 (7HU 

Ufa Grow 

faov 

Dk 

09100 0 V 80 

tinto 6 itolmfer 

lira 

Ok 

57,100 (I450B L) 

MC Padfc 

Ur 

FSW 

W75 (989 

Maols-caenfeHt 

NBV 

DK 

7580 0M0 

(fees Skm 

Ml 

Jk 

is# a m 

OanMeda 

m 

Dk 

1530 L 021 1} 

fasttesMto 

wr 

Ok 

in MUD 

PWencntfl flea § 

QE 

Ok 

20700 L (150 1 

MraMt 

HM 

Dk 

20* 9P* 

ftmlf.'rt 

fafa 

Ok 

1500 L (1154 

fodMSdMM 

U 

Dk 

15» W 

fadnec 

BE 

Dk 

tO* P5»0 

hadpMt 

Mb 

Ok 

vu am 

Ramcnwong 

BM 

fee 

15HJL P* 4 

ftftfEMW 

M 

fee 

15 " am 

Sctofi 

BHh 

Dk 

17,100 0509 

SonAm 

Mi 

Dk 

15 * am 

Sea CcntaneR ^ 

TOM 

Ok 

nun pun) 


StapeARdsr MM 

SMmM Pbtfonns SpSr 

Shanks Hdp BdMa 

SCtt ttfcp BkG 


Pier TV IM 

lUcnm tag Eng 

UMfMndy Us 

UnM tadnofea Gag 

IMM PM&UMh M 

vjmm hmb 

VHeGraM M 

ngrtaod Mdgmnd t fine 

Mm fitts tent &fe 

YaWpJe Tot 


v* w* 

626 L (1431) 
MM 
U3BL 03*1) 

tw tap* 

*430 L 0310 1) 
aiwn pfgq 

ram a g*i) 


map' mm 

*420 0799 

vm MM 

a.100 P2 M 

naa AM 

3ao AM 


5.17 (3.73) 

- At<) 
37J £2351 

25 0-71 

445 (ILB6) 
3451 (3249 

- KL911 
022 (726) 
555 I&34) 
H5B .tiaw 
6.04 (458) 

m a « 

755 (6711 
10 (I&7) 
i4j nan 
ms aw 

63 15.41 

52.1 £49.1) 

- 1271' 
20 H 

661 <6011 

■ A«i 
133* turn 

60 AS 

- H 

144 (IM 

034 (391 
33 (Ml 
426 <2181 

50 AS 

27 H 

263 (10* 
1511 IUHS 
696 H 
6C4 $46) 

- AS 

121 liar) 
266 (70.4) 

<3611 

4u turn 

- l-t 

ia h 

1631 1121? 
13 t) 

- l-» . 

no as 

366 t-1 
144 A33| 
457 A13 
1154 <1152) 

- H 

13 H 

- UW 

U AS 

- IM 

m *<0 

49 (451 
»* (70S 

• H 

40 (IIS 
130 H 
1&4 0U| 
627 (1.9 

12 2 (MS 

• H 
IM M 

■ (•) 

liPfl 

• H 

5177 0&19 

MB (172) 

mt h. 

136 (LOS) 

35 f&S 

7.1 nan 

557 (6-23) 
339 0* 

sij is* 

243 (27.9 


DMMS” 
per Mat ffl 

LOT W9 

- AS 

22J0 (225) 
M 04 
33 * (D-41) 
143 (130 

- M 

*53 (U3» 
U (55) 

«J (64) 

35 (229) 
3629 pZQ 
2.M (150 
629 AW 
B5 (125) 
M AW 
239 (25) 

60 A4 
15 (35) 
152 M 

224 (25) 

U tut 

45 (15) 
1W (12) 

- H 

77 (75) 
155 (15) 
25M3 (1572) 
239 (223) 
6Q (7* . 
15 n-3) 
US M 
45 04 
275 AW 
w AJn> 

25 09 
100 (105) 
U 09 
U 0W 
M M 

- H 
22 H 
u 09 

- H 

- H 

no (ru» 

167 (17.11) 
U 019 
1556 (I2W 
133 H 

■ H 

- H 
05 H 
P7 09 

- 09 
u (USA 
24 01) 

37 09 

* H 

UTS (207) 
75 04) 
135 (134 

■ H 
M M 

- W 

- H 

- B 
»M 

- B 

225 014 

* H 

M 004 

049 0W 
995 (84 
47 01) 

U 04 
L2 04 
02 (04 
u PW 


I Mght> isnw 

Bemron b to mbs £21.5ni visa 1-5 rights issue at 325p per share. 

Benson Is to raise £5.2m via a 1-1 rights Issue at 40p per share. 

VDC is to raise E2 J8m via a 1-5 rights Issue at 675 p and In also ptectag 
224m new 25p shares at ISWp to rates £3.78m. 

■ Offer* for gate, jilacBnpa &introdoctfon» 

CSveden is to raise £7.4m via a piecing. 

MSB tnUmatiunal b to be valued at about £40m foam Ifa flotation. 

MaMen Croup Is to rates £20m via a flotation. 

BSIermluRi & Copthome b to rabe about £1 50m vb a pfodng. 

Rackwood Mneral la reWng £L55m via a placing and open offer of 10m 
shares on a 1-4 bads at 5Qp. 

Readymbc b to rates £6m vta a placing at 97 p and 180m via a 1-3 (van 
offer. 


■ Current takeover bids and mergers 


In the Pink 



MSteiMM 

item 

Pita 

Muet* 

_ 


teidwr 

Hior 

tote* fed bid fa»- 

Odder 


2P85S , 

206 

184K 

15Sbn 

RantoM 


.. to. . 

36 

37 

1652 

Bdom . _ 

d 

THL.. . 

.600 

580 

300 . 

Pantbar Sam . 

d 

48M . 

.600 

680 

358 

Ponthar Sana 

... 

_ar 

33.. 

34 

686 

RKSavid 


108*. . 

.182 

168 

28.13 

"Mrs 


Ii*76- 

K77 

h22B 

W 557* 

DCC 


as** 

248 

246 

340.0 

Nat WaK.Bank 


250*+ 

248 

246 

1K5 

.Nat Wait Bank .. 


14«*± 

144. 

120 

435 

Saa Contalnars A 


.. «7Vi . 

51 

18 

1455 . 

Abbot Qtduo 


. 28 V 

51 . . 

28. . . 

850 . 

OGC 


836* . .. 

534 

331 

156fan 

Cantral A SLWMt 


sr 

50 ., 

44.75 

538.70 

Kvaantar 


BJBT* 

. sy» 

8 

.778 

Vflteoo Bowdap .. 


701 

701 

674. . 

40050 . 

SfetMi 


"Dividends are shown net pence per share and are adjusted for any 
Intervening scrip issue. Reports and accounts are not normally avMaHB until 
about six weeks after the board meeting to approve pr e li mina ry results. Ft 1st 
quarterly. + 2nd quarterly. * 3rd quarterly, 8 Split dividend. * Yearly 
dividend, t Irish punts and pence. 

■ Last week’s interim results 


BET 

CentraGoti 


6wi*t .ST .33.. 34 686 RUM ... .. 

Ferry PWtarfno . 108*. . .182 168 26.13 Wan .... . 

Rpoas t 11*76- K77 h228 Irt5 JSIM DOC 

Gartmore 236** 248 .2)46 3400 Nat WM.Bnk 

Do. 250*4 . 243 . 246 1265 . .NMWM Ba* . . . 

loM Steam PM 140*2 144. . 120 435 Sw Contabwie A 

OtS Inti. t. .... 47% - - 51 .18 1455 . AMxn Qnw 

OtS Inti. . 28t. . 51 ] 28. . . ’ 850. . . OGC 

SEEBOARD . OSS*... 534 931 1-58bn CMW1S.M 

Traf5oar Houso . . . .60* SO _ 44.75 . 53870 . KiMtmr 

TrenetwrMMd 65T BV» 8 ..728 tom Bowkp .. . 

LMtacfi 701 . 701 674. 43000 . .Mw 

Prices pence unteas indicated. ’Alt cash offer. §For capital not already held, f 
Unconditional. “Based on fonchfime prices 4M/96 §§Shares aid cash. * For 
75M held by Bnq fndosuez. ♦ For remaining 2596. ■ For 22.7% not already 
owned; Partial share abamathre- b220p tar each DCC share held.^750p cash 
for every 1 In 3 Elys shares <r485p for every 2 In 3 Bys shares, t Cash & 
share alternative: -\ Sea Gont A share for every 10 loM, + 460p cash. 


Bids 


Unitech, the power supplies 
anri control systems manufac- 
turer, this week agreed terms 
of a recommended offer from 
Siebe which values it at more 
than £500m. The terms are 
0.804 of a Siebe share for each 
Unitech, with a cash alterna- 
tive of 659 ^p. The paper offer 
was worth 715p when the deal 
was announced, although Sie- 
be’s shares fell hack slightly 


later. 

The share offer is at a pre- 
mium of almost 40 per cent 
over Unitech’s price before 
Siebe announced it had 
acquired a 25 per cent stake in 
the group from Electrowatt 
The take-out price represents 
26 times earnings per share in 
the year to May 1995. Siebe 
said the deal would not dilute 
its earnings in the first year. 


■ Directors* share transact io n* in their 
own companies ' 


Comooiw 

SALES 


Abacus. Grouo .. 

... DM. .. 

. 10500 . 

28 

.1 

Bostrom 

. EnoV 

. 13.000 

. 38 

. 1 

Chomrtna fatxn . 

Ena 

7500 

a 

. 1 

Orarawlck , . , 

MRr. ... 


..18 

. .1 

Hnelst CSroi® . 

.... .DM .. 

. 8508, 

..48 

:■ ?- 

Forth Ports 

. . Tran. 

. 38.022, 

.232 

. 2 

GKN . . . 


. . .5.000 _. 

. 1+ 

. .1_ 

HTV 

.... MM .. 

4500. _ 


. ...1_ 

HufoW , . 

E "°. . . 


43 

- 2 - 

JuoRarJrttt.^iaanltt . 

- % 


». 

S-. 

Watawort Chrtsr . t 

.. -MriT .. ... 

^ 4500 




LAntart Howarth Taxi . . ... _355P0_ .4#.^.. ^i.., . , f 

M«*te.w|.. , ....... TJ . „. 

Cham ^ .. . 6500. _ 1. _ 


Marcurv Aaaat Mnana p _ 


.. . .450°...- 

T7 

..1 . 

NWFGteouj _ 

DM. 

7«0 r 

25 

.1 

R80« . . . . . 

. 

.. 26570 , _ , 

3ft . ._ 

t 

PSTT ' 

f"» ,, . - 

25500 _ 

' . - 


PrartarOH . . 

05 . . 

352.500 

» . 

i 

Routers 

. Mdta ... 

12500 

.. 18 

1 

Southern Vedto 

Tran 

. 37^X3 

._ 21 


Sotax-Saroo 

- ^ 

7.400 

B 

1 . 

Tsl«n» . 

WBi 

8500..." 

12 

1 

Tonomwa Latsuia . _ 

. LUfl 

3500.000 .. . 

210 

j 

WMmouaria 

php 

. 13582 

57 

2 

BwWord lira 

WPr. ’J’? 

128.148 

248 

■)'. 

CoataVNada 

Taxt 

12500 

» . 

i*. 

FuPar Smith ft Tn * 

■•aw 

38.725 ’ 

275 

3 * 


Lflino (John) * 

Low & Sonar 
Mario 8 Soonew 
Soma Grouo 
Smith 6 Naohaw .. 

PURCHASES 
31 Smaflar OuaMd 

ABTECIBSto 
AaOM Grouo 
AJtton 

Antoteoaata Httm 

BTR 

Boctrom 

Brit Btoodftoch Aav 
Brit Fittwas &n 
BrttWn Gro 
BumfWel 


Cakafoaad.Robay ♦ DM 7ZJM . . .. 26 i . 

Coumrv CtMutea Ra«3 10500. 16 _ 1 

EMAP MHa 3500 22 1 

Eno & Scot tnv . foVT 28500 . 38 .1 

Quo Wtfearw ^ Pfwm . . . 1500 ... 18 1 

Grain Dev do Tr , hVT 100500 46 1 ‘ 

’naxaoa . . . _ . DM 12500 . SB 1 . 

MarourvOrosvTM OBlP ia000 . . 28 3 . . 

Prudential Coro LBA 10500 ..43 1 

WvonGro HOod 5.000 .14 1 

Robert Wiaaman FdPr .. SO.OOQ OB i 

SK3 . . BMW 7.000 18 1_ 

SarSno Grouo Text . . 500500 .236 1 

Yoriahiro Fbod FdPr 30.000 .38 1 

c*,hr 5.5 Companies muet noOfy the Suck ExcUmge vriHn Bm meUng day of a ahm 
ban aa cBan by a ete acu r . TNa M ct nt al n e a* tr anaacUona (Mad and USMl, hdudng 
oxereba of opttoni f) V 1HW subaequentiy add. wtti a rates over £10500. trifom H on 
ralaaaad by the Stock Exchange March 25-20 1096. Sam traded era odnay, ml —a 
otharartee etatad. f» A Non- Voting, Defend Piefereve e She* *= A Ordtosry 

Sharea. Zero Dividend Preferen ce Shares. American Oe po alfery Racalpts 

Source: Tha foSde Track. EtSnbugh. 0131-538 TWO 

Forth Port* 

The brgaet mM of Vw week urea at Forth Ports Hogh Ihorapna via deputy 
chnkman wtw raoantfy aeppad doam as deaf m a ruk re tn ba repfeead by Afatek 
naming, sob 30500 abenea al 013 {l 

Share prise (ponce) 

700 BffljEuEaBBBi =i 

Ti*. 6mfo 3.022 

KM. Thonpean (Dep. OlT 1 

0°° : 30500 « 6I0-812D 


L=l"S ct~ j V -— — 




Saurac The bekfe TfoeK Edinburgh 


HJAThompaonPltf‘ 
20500 at M6p jt±L. 


« 06 

* NoMuacuttw 


Why gold still holds its 
attractions for many 

The metal is a succour in troubled times, says John Train, 
and some will never prefer funds to jewellery 


John Train is rfmlrmnn 
of Montrose Advisers, 
investment managers 
in New York City 


L ast year, in a column 
headlined "Gold's 
everlasting attrac- 
tion.’', I described vari- 
ous investment options. First. 
I dealt with the metal itself, 
and the merits of bullion ver- 
sus coins. Then, comparing 
coins alone. I looked at those 
selling at Intrinsic value, such 
as krugerrands and maple 
leafs, versus those selling at 
numismatic pre miums . (Stick 
to the former there are Innu- 
merable ways to lose money 
In rare coins.) 

Then, 1 discussed equities. 
Gold mining stocks go up and 
down two or three times faster 
than the metal itself. One 
option is to buy specific 
mines, the yield from which is 
partly a return of capital since 
the asset is depleting. Another 
is to buy mining houses, 
which should go on forever. 

(Incidentally, be sure to 
establish that any nvmti you 
buy has not sold its produc- 
tion too far forward, which is 
done to finance operations - 
iTirtinrihig capital spending - 
and to stabilise the selling 
price at a satisfactory level. 
Barrick Gold, for instance, has 
sold its production two years 
ahead, and same of the Aus- 
tralians and South Africans 
four to eight. Homestake and 
Newmont do not sell forward. 
But Africa was a considerable 
source of forward selling fast 
year, thanks to instability 
there.) 

I ended up suggesting that 
you should buy a closed-end 
investment trust selling below 
net asset valne. or else an 
open-end fund sold without a 
commission. Since then, 
though, there has been a pow- 
erful move in gold. So, what 
next? 

First, let us look at the sup- 
ply-demand equation. As I 


mentioned last year, a 
remarkable surge is taking 
place in Asian gold buying. 
Indeed, overall world con- 
sumption rose 13 per cent last 
year. On the other hand, pro- 
duction is roughly static; 
operations in South Africa are 
troubled and older mines else- 
where are running down. 

The production shortfall is 
being made up from two prin- 
cipal sources. One is gold min- 
ing companies selling their 
production forward; they 


Most Swiss bank portfolios 
once bad 10 per cant in gold as 
an anchor to windward in 
times of crisis. The idea was 
to hold enough bullion so that 
you could get along reason- 
ably for some tbnp if thing s 
blew up in your own country. 
No longer. It was a dead hold- 
ing for so many years that the 
Swiss portfolios largely elimi- 
nated it 

And yet the idea does malm 
sense. Troubled times do 
return and, at such times. 


Many central banks hold more 
dollars in reserves than they really 
want, and not enough gold. 
Fifteen years ago, more than a 
third of their reserves was in gold. 
Now, that is down to 5 per cent 


made available about 900 tons 
in 1996. 

The other is central banks, 
some of which have been sell- 
ers during the era of dull 
prices; they provided about 
300 tons last year. Scrap deal- 
ers provided the rest 

This dual solution is not 
going to be available forever, 
though. The two sources are 
drying up; indeed, they are 
estimated to foil by 900 tons 
this year. 

So much for more demand 
versus supply. But markets 
are not that simple. Rising 
prices usually fuel more buy- 
ing. Some central banks . 
loaned gold to buBian banks 
that have, in turn, loaned it to 
milling companies selling 
their production forward. 

So far, this has been a nice, 
quiet money-maker for an con- 
cerned. But if bullion runs up 
in price, those at risk are 
likely to cover as far as they 
ran Xn this situation, as else- 
where, lower interest rates - 
meaning a lower opportunity 
cost - are positive for gold- 


gold has no substitute. Euro- 
peans see danger in two direc- 
tions: in the former Soviet 
Union, where a number of the 
farmer components and Rus- 
sia itself are unstable, and in 
file former Yugoslavia. 

Consider, too, how the 
world looks from Asia. China 
is faring a serious oil short- 
age: hence its sabre-rattling in 
the South China sea, where 
there are promising reserves 
alien claimed ai«n by its neigh- 
bours. And the Chinese mill , 
tary is menacing Taiwan, pre- 
sumably to show zeal in the 
post-Deng struggle. Frighten- 
ing events - and a stimulus to 
gold buying. 

Then, there fa the fact that 
many central banks, particu- 
larly in Asia, hold more dol- 
lars in their reserves than 
they really want, and hot 
anon gh gold. 

Fifteen years ago, more 
than a third of their reserves 
was in gold; now, that is down 
to 5 per cent Many will want 
to exchange some of those dol- 
lars for more bullion as its 


price rises (although, when 
they start to sell again, 
they could easily kill the mar- 
ket). 

There are a couple of argu- 
ments against this reasoning. 
First gold does not go away. 
The 100, 000-odd tons - equiva- 
lent in volume to a smallish 
office building - produced 
since the beginning of time 
have shuffled around a lot 
between countries and, 
indeed, continents. But it fa 
all still right there, on the : 
arms of Indian women and in 
bank vaults, and available at 
a price. 

So, unlike industrial metals | 
which are actually used up, j 
gold fa- essentially just a spec- I 
ulative football. At some i 
price, the market will clear, as 
economists say. Indeed, it will 
probably crash eventually, 
since booms almost always go 
too far and then over-react. 

There is a theory that the I 
US Federal Reserve wants to 
keep down the price of gold to 
dampe n inflation. 

One former governor of the 
Fed holds that a rise of $10 an 
ounce translates into a 02 per 
cent increase in the consumer 
price index. But I believe that 
in economic (as distinct from 
psychological) terms, that fa 
simply not true. Gold is too 
minor a factor. What about 
oil, or grain? 

Another argument against 
gold fa that it was once the 
only perfect store of value: a 
shield against inflation, defla- 
tion, war and crises. Now, an 
alternative is available to a 
prosperous Investor: the 
multi-currency money fund 
held in another country. If 
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yield. 

While a Hindu matron will j 
probably not prefer a fond to j 
ha gold armband, a Chinese ! 

nt Br azilian magnate presum- 
ably Win. Nevertheless, once 
the speculative tide s t a r ts run- 
ning. few can resist its pull 


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FINANCIAL 


TIMES WEEKEND APRIL 6/APRIL 7/APRH S 


/ 


Weekend Investor 


V 


Wall Street 


London 


Pepsico starts a 
ding-dong campaign 


Speculators eye their targets 

Bid talk lifts Easter torpor, reports Philip Coggan 


P epsico's fast rood unit. 
Taco Bell, stunned 
patriots across the US 
on Monday when it 
announced - via a full page 
advertisement in The New 
York Times - that it had pur- 
chased the Liberty Bell in an 
effort to help reduce the 
national debt. 

“While some may find this 
controversial, we hope our 
move will prompt other corpo- 
rations to take similar action 
to do their part to reduce the 
country’s debt.” the company 
said of its purchase. Would the 
McDonald's Statue of Liberty 
be next? 

The sale of the bell, rung in 
July 1776 after the reading of 
the Declaration or Indepen- 
dence. turned out to be an 
April Fools' Day joke, and 
Pepsico shares even ended the 
day up $*;. 

But Wall Street does not 
always take kindly to sur- 
prises. That was made evi- 
dently clear late last month 
when investors battered tech- 
nology stocks after Digital 
Equipment Company warned 
investors that slowing com- 
puter sales meant its quarterly 
earnings - to be announced 
later this month - would not 
meet analysts' expectations. 

On the day of the announce- 
ment. shares in DEC fell 17 per 
cent and the technology-rich 
Nasdaq composite shed 
1 per cent as investors battered 
the entire computer sector. 

DEC'S caution came as part 
of what analysts refer to as the 
“preannouncement season", or 
the time just before the earn- 
ings reporting period when 
companies try to prepare inves- 
tors for disappointing results. 
Advanced Micro Devices, the 
microchip company. Archer 
Daniels Mi dlan d, the agribusi- 
ness group, and International 
Paper are among those that 
have tried to make sure their 
investors are not taken 
unaware by weak earnings. 

Since the start of March ana- 
lysts' have lowered their earn- 
ings outlooks for the compa- 
nies in the Standard & Poor's 
500 by 2.4 per cent according 
to Joe Abbott of IBES. which 
tracks earnings estimates. 

These announcements and 
forecast changes have rattled 
individual shares, but they 
have not troubled the market 
as a whole. 

The Dow Jones Industrial 
Average edged to a new record 
last Wednesday iD unusually 
steady trading given the vola- 
tile activity seeu at beginning 
of this year. Although DEC’S 


And Lisa Bransten discovers just why 
the market hates surprises 


'-r 



S pring is here - or so 

the caleurinr tells us. if 
not yet the 
thermometer. The 
estate agents are a little busier 
and the show homes in the 
new housing developments 
have streams of curious 
visitors opening the kitchen 
cupboards and peering into 
the bathrooms. 

Meanwhile, the big building 
societies that calculate house 
: price indices have been 
squinting through magnifying 
glasses and are proclaiming 
that house prices are on the 
rise. Treasury ministers have 
been celebrating such 
indicators discreetly, for this 
is one form of inflation that 
does not feed quickly into the 
retail price index. 

Only Peter Robinson has 
cause for regret, as the 
newly-appointed Woolwich 
building society chief 
executive who was forced 
suddenly out of office this 
week. Like other members of 
the Woolwich. I received a 
letter only last month from 
the chairman, Sir Brian 
Jenkins, in which he talked 
glowingly of Robinson's 
"capable hands . .. and proven 
leadership qualities". Now. 
there is talk of a furious row 
over expenses and a terminal 
loss of trust. 

Robinson is not the only 
building society chief to make 
a sudden exit recently, and 
boardroom insecurity- could 
reflect rising risks in the 
property business generally. 


Shaking off slowing earnings 


SAP Composite Index^ 
7QO - 


When a chief executive officer is 
encouraged by his advisers to 
make deals, he responds much 
as would a teenage boy who is 
encouraged by his father to 
have a normal sex life. It's not 
a push he needs. 


growth (%} 
-9.50 



T he wise words of bil- 
lionaire investor War- 
ren Buffett have sel- 
dom rung more true. 
US industry is indulging in an 
orgy of mega-mergers at the 
moment, and the only thing 
that kept the UK stock market 
from sinking Into pre-Easter 
torpor this week was a revival 
of takeover speculation. 

The talks between British 
Telecom and Cable & Wireless, 
announced last week, seem to 
have prompted investors to 
search around for other plausi- 
ble bid candidates. 

Shares in Thom EMI, the 
company which is due to 
demerge its music business in 
the summer, suddenly surged 
on Tuesday afternoon on hopes 
that an overseas bidder might 
be about to pounce. Pearson. 


1990 91 

Soi»C<: FT Ertal 


shares have languished since 
the warning, by last Wednes- 
day the Nasdaq had risen past 
its pre-announcement levels. 

Such steadiness on the mar- 
kets has led to much discus- 
sion on Wall Street about how 
much surprise risk remains. 

Jeffrey Applegate, chief mar- 
ket strategist at Lehman 
Brothers, does not think there 
is much risk to the market this 
month because most of the 
companies that ended the past 
quarter badly have already 
warned the market. 

Expectations of weaker earn- 
ings have taken some toll in 
recent weeks. Last year equi- 
ties soared even as earnings 
growth began to slow. In Feb- 
ruary the market stalled amid 
signs that the economy had 
softened. 

Given the surprisingly 
strong figures on employment 
growth in February, however, 
Applegate thinks that the econ- 
omy rebounded in the first 
quarter from 0.5 per cent 
growth seen at the end of last 
year. His estimate is that the 
economy grew 1.5 to 2 per cent 
ih the first quarter and could 
top those levels this quarter. 

“It doesn’t look like earnings 
are falling apart." he says, but 
he adds that if monetary policy 
remains restrictive growth 
could turn sluggish by year 
end. 

Not all surprises will be neg- 
ative. Last Wednesday, Conti- 
nental Airlines told its employ- 
ees, it would probably beat 
analysts expectations sparking 
a jump in shares across the 
airline sector. 

Peter R. AndersoD, senior 
vice-president of domestic 
equity funds at Federated 
Investors, is cautious about 
first-quarter earnings. 


although he is in general 
agreement that negative sur- 
prises are more likely to come 
at the end of the year than in 
the beginning- “When you get 
out to the fourth quarter that 
is when you will really start to 
see some disappointments.’' he 
says. “Having gone through 
four years of fairly strong 
growth you’re hound to get 
some disappointments." 

But Anderson’s concerns 
about the strength of the econ- 
omy or the markets did 
slacken his desire for a piece of 
Lucent Technologies, which 
completed the biggest ever ini- 
tial public offering on the New 
York Stock Exchange last 
Thursday. He says Federated 
got only abont 20 per cent of 
the amount of Lucent that it 
wanted. 

Judging from Thursday's 
activity, demand for shares in 
the telecommunications equip- 
ment company spun off from 
AT&T was not satisfied by the 
initial allocations. 

Shares were priced at $27 
each on Wednesday evening 
and opened at about $31 the 
next day in New York trading 
giving file company a market 
value of nearly SlOfan. 

Also popular last week was 
the IPO of Lycos, which makes 
software that serves as a direc- 
tory to much of information 
available on the Internet. 
Shares in the company ended 
their first day of trading on 
Tuesday at $22^. nearly 35 per 
cent above the offering price. 


the media group which owns 
the Financial Times, attracted 
the speculators on Wednesday 
and Thursday. There was even 
one actual deal; engineering 
group Siebe's offer for Unitech, 
the electronic components and 
equipment company, worth 
around £500m. 

As was the case in 1995, pick- 
ing potential takeover targets 
was the key to successful 
investment in the first three 
months of the year. Lad broke, 
the best Footsie performer in 
the quarter, owed its rise 
largely to bid speculation. 

But there were also encour- 
aging signs that British indus- 
try remains alive and kicking. 
Shares in engineering group 
GKN rose 22 per cent with the 
help of a 61 per cent increase 
in pre-tax profits and a 90 per 
cent jump in earnings per 
share; the company's aero- 
space business performed 
strongly and it is winning 
orders in emerging markets. 

One of Britain's oldest indus- 
trial giants, I Cl. also revealed 
bumper profits in the form of 


an 85 per cent annual increase. 
This helped the chemicals com- 
pany become Footsie's third- 
best performer in the first 
three months. 

All in all, it was a good time 
to be owning cyclicals, with 
British Steel and Rolls-Royce 
also showing double digit 
share price increases. The mar- 
ket obviously is convinced that 
the recent slowdown in the UK 
economy will be temporary. 

Conversely, financial stocks, 
which had a very strong 1995. 
slumped to the bottom of the 
Footsie rankings. Fading take- 
over hopes hit Guardian Royal 
Exchange and Schroders, the 
two worst performers in the 
index, while Royal Bank of 
Scotland also was affected by 
worries about a profits slump 
at its Direct Line insurance 
arm. 

As the graph shows, small 
com pani es have done much 
better rhan Footsie stocks in 
the first part of 1996. although 
this only reverses their under- 
performance in 1995. Since 
smaller companies tend to be 




* jm£wm 


• ■■■■■■ mZtvf, 

vSg&f 



.3 a£ 6k 


Signs that British industry is still afive and kicking 


1*0,0 Hunpnm 


Small is beautiful 


more UK-based than the multi- 
national Footsie constituents, 
the minnows may be rising for 
the same reason as the cycli- 
cals. 


FT-SE SmaftCap fndex refatfve to the FT-SE 100 Index 
102 r 


98 ' 



A mong the All-Share 
index constituents, 
the best gains were 
made at Cairn 
Energy, which announced an 
encouraging oil find in Bangla- 
desh. The shares more than 
doubled in response. Else- 
where, the big money was 
made in the takeover stocks 
such as Lloyds Chemists. 
Tr afalgar House and BET. 

Many of the shares to avoid 
were in the volatile technology 
sector, with software groups 
Quality Software Products and 
Learmonth & Burchett Man- 
agement Systems each falling 
by more than 50 per cent Big 
declines also were seen at the 
virtual reality group Division 
and the biotech company Pro- 
teus. 

One of the first quarter's 
worst performers. Frost Group, 
managed a revival this week as 
signs emerged that the petrol 
pump price war might be over. 
The news also benefited shares 
in the supermarket groups, 
which account for around 20 
per cent of UK petrol sales. 

The overall market was 
buoyant, despite the shortened 
trading week and the lack of 
action on interest rates at the 
monthly meeting between Ken- 
neth Clarke, chancellor of the 
exchequer, and Eddie George, 
governor of the Bank of 
England. 

Caution might also have 
been expected ahead of yester- 
day’s publication of the influ- 
ential US non-farm payroll fig- 
ures, which happened while 
the London market was closed. 


92 1 1— 

Jan 

Soiree: fX ExteJ 


Highlights of the week 


Dow Jones Ind Average 

Monday 5637.72 +■ 50.58 

Tuesday 5671.68 + 33.96 

Wednesday 5689.74 + 18.06 

Thursday 

Friday Closed 



Price 

Hus 

Change 
on weak 

52 weak 
Mgh 

52 week 
Low 


FT-SE 100 index 

3755.6 

455.9 

3781.3 

317D5 

Takeover speculation 

FT-SE Mid 2SO Index 

438&S 

458.6 

4385J 

3482.6 

Takeover specidatfon 

BAT inds 

508 

+14 

586 

438 

Recovery tram oversold position 

Bass 

771 

429 

773 

535 

Negotiating to buy CartMfg-Tetiey 

Btrmah Gastrol 

1078 

430 

1094 

883 

Morrill Lynch recommends , 

Pearson 

721 

472 

725 

544 

Takeover speculation 

Reuters 

757. 

459 

758 

465 

Share buy-back hopes 

Shell Transport 

862 

♦13 

893 

710 

Firm ofl price __ 

Tl Group 

508 

♦23 

515 

355 

SBC Warburg recommendation 

Tosco . 

282 

♦17 

339 

185 

End of petrol price war 

Thom EMI 

1790 

♦117 

1843 

1093 

Bid speculation 

United Friendly B 

842 

*77 

842 

563 . 

Wed-received figures 

United News & Mecfia 

684 

■*69 

684 

489 

MAI merger cleared 

Wetherspoon (JQ) 

934 

.■tee 

934 

460 

Company iolntng FT-SE Htid 250 index 


But it seems the lure of the 
bidding bonanza overcame all 
other factors and. by the end of 
Thursday’s session. Footsie 
had rebounded to 3.755.6. only 
26 points from its all-time high. 
The junior Mid-250 index 
chalked up records on all four 
trading days. 

The driving force behind the 
takeover spree in 1995 was the 
strong cash flow of the corpo- 
rate sector. 

In 1996. share offers have 
become more common than 
cash deals; tins could be con- 
nected to the fact, reported in 
this column last week, that the 
financial balance of industrial 
and commercial companies 
moved into the red in the 
fourth quarter of last year. 

In a new 3y published 
research note. Barclays de 
Zoete Wedd says: “We expect 
measures of financial strength, 
specifically cash flow, to 
become more important for 
stock selection. 

“As cash flow becomes a jr’. 
more scarce commodity, we • 
expect those companies who 
have it to be rewarded. 
Correlations between cash 
growth and share prices 
increase as the economic cycle 
matures.” 

In other words, cash flow is 
not so important to investors 
when the economy is booming 
and companies can expand by 
reinvesting their earnings. 

But when times get tough, 
and companies have to borrow, 
investors need to pay very 
close attention to the health of 
corporate balance sheets. 

BZW says that “stocks which 
stand out for their 
improvement in generation of 
free cash (relative to their 
valuation) include GUS, Rank, 
Rexam. Vodafone and BTR." 


Barry Riley 


; oEosasn 


An Englishman’s sandcastle 

Bricks and mortar have become volatile assets these days 


Thornton Preference PEP 


.;u.u<r.T<rj»ra4t*«u& _ 
AAVon-jr'Scerurau.. •* • 

n 


Bricks and mortar (or 
structural steel and glass, for 
that matter) have become 
volatile rather than secure 
assets. The institutions that 
service these markets have 
been jolted into uncomfortable 
change. 

The market weakness has 
some connection with the 
decline in inflation to low 
levels, but has even more to 
do with the appearance of 
surpluses Looser planning 
controls have allowed supply 
to catch up with - and often 
exceed - demand. 

Residential property has 
been hit by demographic 
shifts and declining numbers 
of younger buyers, especially 
those with secure jobs able to 

support a big mortgage. 
Commercial property also has 
been affected by technological 
changes which have rendered 
much space obsolescent. High 
streets decay while suburban 
shopping malls proliferate 
everywhere. 

Whereas residential prices 
appear to be picking up 
slightly - with a rise of 1.2 per 
cent in March (the eighth 
monthly increase in a row) 
and 1.7 per cent year-on-year, 
according to Halifax building 
society - commercial prices 
have been soft. Figures also 
published this week by the 
Investment Property 
Databank suggest that prices 
of offices, shops and industrial 
buildings fell across the 
country by 4 per cent on 
average during calendar-1995 


although, when rental income 
is added in. the total- 
investment return came to 
plus-3 per cent 
That was a remarkably poor 
outcome compared with the 
returns of 24 per cent on UK 
equities and 18 per cent on 
government bonds last year. 
True, the year before, when 
the stock market fell, property 


Residential 
property has 
been hit by 
demographic 
shifts and fewer 
younger buyers 


had performed quite welL 
Long-term institutions like 
pension funds may. therefore, 
still see some merit in 
property because of the 
diversification of investment 
risk that it offers. 

Even so, the average UK 
pension fund only has 5 per 
cent of its assets in property 
these days, according to the 
WM Company, the 
performance measurement 
consultant, compared with 
almost 10 per cent at the 
beginning of 1990 and 22 per 
cent in 1980. 

As an investment, real 
estate has proved very 
disappointing in recent years. 
During the 1990s so far. the 
average annual return on UK 


equities has been 12 per cent, 
but only 4 per cent on 
properly. That is the 
difference between £lm 
growing to £2m or £L3m in six 
years. Just like labour, 
property has suffered from the 
economic slowdown and from 
the productivity gains 
associated with technological 
change. Office rental income 
around the country has shown 
no net growth in four years. 
The benefits have gone into 
non-property company profits 
and have helped to boost the 
value of equities. 

In these circumstances, the 
idea that property can be an 
investment that can, in effect, 
be locked away in a portfolio 
has to be re-thought When 
scarce offices and shops could 
be let on 25-year, upward-only 
leases, the idea made a lot of 
sense. The lease, so long as it 
had a good credit rating, could 
be valued much like a bond. It 
was certainly Inflation-proof. 

But a commercial property 
on a short lease, or 
untenanted, is a different 
proposition entirely. It is 
much more like a piece of 
machinery that incurs 
running and maintenance 
costs, depreciation and 
obsolescence. You would not 
really want to invest your 
pension fund in it although 
you might be able to use it 
profitably in your business. 

These days, your house 
could be much like that too. 
The tax breaks for 
homeowners have mostly been 


abolished (except for the 
capital gains tax exemption, 
which is valuable only if 
prices are rising). 

Maybe your boose could be 
owned by experts who know 
something about maintenance 
and manflg prnoyit and have 
access to cheap finance and 
insurance. They used to call it 
renting. 

Perhaps house prices one 
just off the bottom but 
£100,000 invested in the 
Halifax’s average desirable, 
favourably situated residence 
at the market's national peak 
in 1989 is now. apparently, 
worth only around £90,000, 
although it has also provided 
the benefit of a roof over your 
head. 

The same amount pitched 
bravely into the post-crash UK 
stock market is now worth 
some £200,000 - and has 
yielded dividends, too. 

Certainly, the housing 
market is not what it used to 
be, and nor are building 
society chief executives' 
expense accounts. One man 
who gained mightily daring 
the housing boom of the late 
1960s and 1970s was Harold 
Jaggard, boss of the obscure 
Grays building society in 
deepest Essex. IDs gambling 
habits alone were said to have 
cost the society £l.6m by the 
time the auditors finally 
caught up with him at the age 
of 79 in 1978. 

The mess was eventually 
cleared up by, oddly enough, 
the Woolwich. 


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THORNTON 


A Member of the Drewlncr Bank Croup 


by Thnranai Unit Ma nJflrp L-nsud Hour*. Vi On*-!, inns. lonJun ti_JR IA t ts ilv„l K 1M r. || 

r^ullnvcimm. Aorittrity A mu,*,, a, tn: of Uitt Tr^ W httNniL.* H* v ... Z * 3V 

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"J™ rctmeard. UKC.*uftwd Imcrcw 5eu.ii ’•.%«. i| m * itw Muupin: iw u| r,,.| :g JV 

, Erect* for crarBfcn oil Piers iicmemKr deutvc -»l jnmmd rfre frar. mnuv fill r .,, 1 ; , „ Zh 

na r B ct_baAthcvn g i»l r vyft amd for p-lor™,** ., wvrvonh .. ^,dr .. . M ,r.,e ,v,r. 4 rw. . A & 

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mtr&m 


FINANCIAL 


TIMES WEEKEND APRIL 6/APR 1L 7/APRtL S 1996 



















































































































































































































\&f> 


FINANCIAL TIMES WHEKHND APRIL 6/APRIL 7/APRIL 8 1996 


WORLD STOCK MARKETS 


AMERICA 


■' . *■ . I • 'I 


US equities 
mixed ahead 
of March data 


EUROPE 


Milan responds negatively to US jobs figures 


Wall Street 

us equities ended the week In 
a mixed fashion on Thursday 
as investors held positions 
ahead cf the three-day week- 
aid that was due to see the 
release of March unemploy- 
ment figures, writes Lisa Bran- . 
sten in New York. 

By the close of the session 
the technology-rich Nasdaq 
composite had edged up z^6 at 
1.11&21 to pass its previous 
record of 1,11 7.79 set on Febru- 
ary 23. 

Bla&chip shares in the Dow 
Jones Industrial Average were 

^fraA'-ib*hiu»e L .''- 

Di 

SSP , ; 

SQ0’~-i— i— 


•ewr^v ***» mSS ■ 
• * .mtsamo 



721K^S26 &,2S 20 .1 2 3 

»*» •»« ; : Apr , 

off &86 at 5,68188 and the Stan- 
dard & Poor's 500 had slipped 
002 to 655.86, while the Ameri- 
can Stock Exchange composite 
added 2.78 at 577.10. Volume on 
the NYSE came to 382m 


Bonds exerted some negative 
pressure on shares. Late in the 
session the benchmark 30-year 
Treasury was off about a half a 
paint as traders prepared for 
the March unemployment fig- 
ures that were released yester- 
day. 

The stock market was dosed 
yesterday in observance of 
Easter, but there was a half 
day's trading cm the bond mar- 
ket. Both markets will be open 
on Monday, and. with the bond 
market reacting negatively 
fljfsterday to the better-thanrex- 
pected jobs data a sell-off in 
equities was being antidapted. 


Lucent Technologies, which 
was floated on Thursday in the 
biggest initial public offering 
ever launched an the New 
York stock exchange, got off to 
a strong start On the first day 
of trading the shares rose $3% 
above the 827 a share offering 
Price. 

Another high technology flo- 
tation dropped in its third day 
of trading. Lycos, the internet 
search company that rose $5$ 
above its offering price of $17 
in its first day of trading last 
Tuesday, fell $lft on Wednes- 
day and another $2V, on Thurs- 
day, bringing the shares to $18. 

Airline shares found support 
on news that Continental Air- 
lines had told its employees 
that it would probably beat 
analysts estimates fin- its first 
quarter earnings. The shares 
ended up $1% at $59%, UAL, 
the parent company of United 
Airlines, added $4% to $221%. 
AMR, parent of American Air- 
lines, was $2% stronger at 
$92%. Delta Air Lines gained 
$2% at $81% and US Air was $¥< 
stronger at $19%. 

Circuit City, the US electron- 
ics retailer, rose $1% or 5 per 
cent to $30%. Aluminum Com- 
pany of America added $1% at 
$62 after reporting first quarter 
income of $1.01. 

Canada 

Toronto was cautious on 
Thursday as most investors 
consolidated positions ahead of 
the weekend. The TSE 300 
index slipped 5.12 to 501635 in 
turnover of 88.5m shares val- 
ued at C$975m. 

Weak groups included for- 
estry, conglomerates, and con- 
sumer products, while strength 
was found in transportation, 
banking and energy. 

Takeover target Nowsco Well 
Service soared C$8% to C$29 on 
43m shares, topping the 
actives list Nowsco earlier hit 
a 52-week high of C$29% after 
Houston-based BJ Services 
launched a C$27 a share bid. 

• Latin America's major mar- 
kets were closed on Thursday 
and Friday 


The US March employment 
data made its effect felt on 
MILAN yesterday, with domes- 
tic bonds feltin g back and car- 
rying equities along with than 
The US figures suggested that 
the US economy was growing 
.steadily, thereby r uling out 
further cuts in short-term 
interest rates. The Aflbte] index 
lost 71 to 9392 and the 
■ Comit-30 1.42 or 1 per cent to 
138.14. 

On Thursday the market had 
moved higher as a more posi- 
tive view was taken of the 
political outlook. Analysts said 
some polls were pointing a win 
for the centre left in the April 
21 elections, which would be 
regarded as positive for the 
market The Comit ind ex rose 
5.49 to 590.40, while the Mibtel 
index was 148 ahead at 9,463, 

On Thursday PARIS recov- 
ered all of Wednesday’s loss 
and added some. The CAC-40 
index gained 1036 to 2,074 j9Gl 

Canal Plus consolidated 
gains made following news of 

ASIA PACIFIC 


Bertelsmann’s link with CLT 
to finish FFr3 higher at 
FFH.199. Havas made FFr1550 
at FFr451 on the same story. 

Thomson-CSF lost early 
gains to dose up FFrLSO at 
FFI03L9Q in reaction to com- 
ments from Lagardere, down 
FFr7.40 at FFr12830, that it 
might be interested in a stake 
in the company when Thom- 
son, the parent group, was pri- 
vatised. 

Eridania Beghin-Say was 
another loser, of FFr26 at 
FFr879, an profit taking Mow- 
ing 1 recent 

Cri&dit Fonder made FFr435 
to FFr62.95 as reports circu- 
lated that Templeton of the US 
had raised its stake in the 
property bank to nearly 10 per 
cent. 

FRANKFURT was trapped by 
apathetic dnaiinga as the Dax 
index closed the official 0.78 
higher at 2,495.18, after trading 
in a range of 2,492.61 to 
2,503.42. The lbs closed up 933 
at 2,498.75. 


| FT-SE Act 

uaries Share in 

dices 




Apr4 

Hub Gtanoes 

Opffl 1050 

1150 

1250 

THE EUROPEAN SERIES 
1100 1450 1580 Chen 

FT-SE Baratruk 100 
FT-SE Emin* 200 

16Z7J6 1GZ7S0 
169050 1B91.19 

162855 

1682.72 

182850 

1B91.73 

1629.33 

160276 

182853 

168250 

1628.76 162939 
1C9U0 108.77 


4pr3 

Apr 2 Apr 1 

Mar 29 

Ite 28 


FT-SE Eartac* 100 1625.48 163028 1628.48 1G2DJB 1615.40 

F TSE Emoack 200 1685X8 168881 168882 187*78 1GG856 

bttMfce loootomwok wom** wo- 163007:200- i«H«aureeir ion - icon ao- iraoas i mm 


Metallgesellschaft rose 2Spfg 
to DM31.95 after reporting a 
rise in its pre-tax profit, while 
Veba gathered DML75. or 2.4 
per cent to DM76 on positive 
sentiment about its telecom- 
munications operations. 

BMW was up DM12 at 
DM795£0, with analysts posi- 
tive on the group's sales out- 
look particularly in the Far 
E ast 

ZURICH closed a shortened 
session slightly firmer, as a 4.7 
per cent jump in Swissair pro- 
vided some excitement in a 
largely quiet market The smt 
index rose 4.4 to 3.611.L 


Swissair registered shares 
rose SFr58 to SFrl.293 in 
response to better than expec- 
ted operating results 
announced after the market 
closed on Wednesday and with 
investors willing to overlook a 
larger than expected restruct- 
uring provision. 

Roche certificates were also 
in demand, rising SFrSO to 
SFr9,835 as investors awaited 
1995 results and expectations 
rose for a centenary bonus div- 
idend. 

AMSTERDAM went quietly 
into the holiday weekend with 
trading largely d ominated by 


position squaring. The AEX 
index rose 2-58 to 536-93, with 
turno ver be low average. 

STOCKHOLM witnessed a 
further slide in Ericsson in fur- 
ther response to Tuesday's 
television report suggesting 
that the company's first quar- 
ter earnings would show a 
decline. 

The Affdrsv&rlden index 
eased 7.7 to L85&7. 

Ericsson fell SKr4 to 
SKrl28.5 although analysts 
noted this was an improve- 
ment on its Wednesday dose 
in New York of $16%, corre- 
sponding to SKrl24. 

WARSAW was firmer on both 
Thursday and Friday following 
two sessions of fells. Analysts 
said the market had been stag- 
nating after surging by nearly 
60 per cent this year. The Wig 
index rose 1 per cent to 
11.61&3. 

ISTANBUL rose 1.6 per cent 
on both Thursday and Friday . 
closing at a new record high. 
The composite index ended at 


70.940.22. PRAGUE, driven to a 
12-month closing high on 
Thursday helped by .strong 
interest in SPT Telecom, up 
KcsTo to Kcs&300. feU fell 4.9 to 
506.9. SPT Telecom dropped 
Kcs95 or 3 per cent to Kcs3,205 
yesterday. 

Written and edited by Mfctiaet 
Morgan and John Pitt 

SOUTH AFRICA 

Johannesburg turned higher 
towards the close on Thursday 
as buying of rand hedge 
stocks, spurred by the weak- 
ness in the rand, pushed the 
three main indices np from 
their static earlier levels. 

The overall index rose 16.7 
to 6.700.6, industrials gained 
11.5 to 8,201.6 and golds added 
6.7 to 1.750.7. 

De Bern made R1.25 cents 
to R 125.75, Minorco rose R2 to 
R115, Engeu fell R1.70 to 
R23.75 and SAB was 50 cents 
higher at R 122. 50. 


Nikkei average closes at highest level in four years 


Tokyo 

Technical purchases activated 
buying by domestic institu- 
tions yesterday and the Nikkei 
index gained 1.1 per cent to 
dose at its highest level since 
February 10, 1992, writes Bmiko 
Terazono in Tokyo. 

The Nikkei 225 index, which 
had risen 6.43 to 21,471.16 on 
Thursday, gained another 
224.68 to 21,695.84, having 
moved between 21.497.39 and 
21,72820. 

Volume was 489m shares 
against 443.5m. The Topix 
index of aD first section stocks, 
which lost 3X16 on Wednesday, 
rose 1623 to 1,658.73, and the 
Nikkei 300 gained 2.78 to 308.43 
after edging down 021 in previ- 
ous trading. 

Advances led declines by 872 
to 217 with 135 issues 
unchanged, while on Thursday 
gamers led losers by 553 to 517 
with 155 remaining unchanged. 

In London, the ISE/Nikkei 50 
index dosed on Thursday at 
1,430.42. 

Investors shrugged off finan- 
cial authorities’ suggestions of 
higher long term interest rates 


which had rocked Tokyo’s 
financial markets earlier in the 
week. Most investors remained 
on the sltieBnefl on Thursday, 
but technical buying yesterday 
set off purchases of large capi- 
tal steels and shipbuilders by 
domestic institutions and 
investment trusts. Brokers 
bought shares to rebalance 
their positions, while individ- 
ual investors dabbled in specu- 
lative stocks. 

Steels and shipbuilders were 
higher in anticipation of buy- 
ing by domestic investors next 
week. 

Nippon Steel gained Y3 to 
Y568 and Mitsubishi Heavy 
Industries also rose Y3 to Y925. 

Trading houses rallied due to 
higher grain prices. Marubeni 
rose Y8 to Y6I0 and Nlssho 
Iwai gained Y40 to Y576. 

Machinery stocks were 
actively traded. Sumitomo 
Heavy Industries was the most 
active issue of the day, adding 
YU to Y444 and Komatsu rose 
Y13 to Y983. 

Paper and pulp companies, 
which fell sharply on plans of 
production reductions in order 
to cut inventories, rebounded. 
New Oji Paper, which had 


dipped Y20 on Thursday, rose 
Y7 to Y917 and Nippon Paper 
Industries, which bad lost Y26, 
gained YI2 to Y719. 

Arbitrage buying supported 
banks, which were sold on 
Thursday. Bank of Tokyo Mit- 
subishi climbed Y40 to Y2£20 
and Sumitomo Bank gained 
Y150 to Y2J60. 

In Osaka, the OSE average, 
which fell 24.21 to 22,726.41 on 
Thursday, gained 168.61 to 
22,895.02 in volume of 51m 
shares. 


FT/S&P ACTUARIES WORLD INDICES 


Tl» FT/B&P Actuate WMd hdkJM era owned tft/.FT-SE bttmationel Untied, Goldman, Sachs & Co. and Standard & Pool's. The Micas era (tempted toy FT-SE International and 
Gettman Seeta In co^unctio^nrtti the FiatyM-MMtiee. end th* Actuate*. NetWn^Socurtttee Ud.wa* co-totaxior ol thft ktices. -■ 

NATIONAL AND - " ~ 

REGIONAL MARKETS — ^ — FRSXAY APfttLfl IBM — — THURSDAY APRS. 4 1BBB DOUARMOEX 

R»«b h pareomeeee US Day* - Pound - • Load Load Gnu US Pound local Ywr 

show number of Inn DaBar Change. Swfhg Yen DM Currency % chg Dhr. Ootar Swung Yan DM CWrency SB week 52 week ago 
ol stock . fcidu St Mb Index Hdex (nflu on toy Yield Index mden tartar Max High low frpranxl 

Auslrstia (B1). . - iqQlQ ' 03 .193.16 .135130 '153.53 188,11 OO 4.11 18a 78 182*5 13445 153-00 1S9.11 202.74 1B2.B3 169.84 

Austria (241 1B3.45 * -CM 177 VO 134.61 141-40 14132 - - HO 154 183X1 17*32 12*35 141,40 14132 18*28 188.11 18532 

Balaian 04) £0933 -0.1 203-59 142.60 18131 157.73 0 JO 4.13 21032 20405 142.18 16131 157.73 21531 18435 18435 

Braztsa 15432 00 14806 10*33 116B5 26037 0.0 1.57 15432 149.79 10438 11578 28037 17D35 10937 11571 

Canada (1 00) 15838 0.1 154-07 10732 122-48 15839 03 2-*0 15837 15431 10732 122.13 15639 15932 13339 13437 

Damurk (30).. 298.13 -0.1 299.11 20231 229.79 232.10 03 132 29837 28931 20134 22931 232.10 305.17 255.18 29230 

FWoidaSTL. —17430 -0.1 18932' 11830 13438 159.97 60 230 174.77 16934 11831 13*32 18937 278.11 171.73 18656 

Fmnca&Si —.19533 -D.T 19039 13336 15133 15556 OO- 501-19633 19056 13239 15134 15536 19633 167.70 18136 

GamTm 17609 -61 18738 11737 133-42 133-42 00 138 17334 16835 11734 13642 13642 17438 14695 1*676 

Horn KwigSffl 43654 0.0 48337 29738 33832 *3537 -03 33* 43833 425.86 29630 33733 43537 *51.19 32337 34232 

Imtandfiai 36737 61 259-48 181.75 20634 2361* 03 . 640 26738 25651 18033 205-78 2361* 26737 21532 21835 

Hntv SOI “L._ --.7619 -1.1 7038 4672 - 58.42 8541 -13 2.14 7*33 7138 5037 5638 6625 82.71 6731 6730 

JaMnSaiL " ...... 155.05 03 15038 10632 .11651 10532 13 . 672 18434 14672 10432 11672 10432 16432 137.75 14832 

fctatawtalion 355.93 -03 63612 S7733 42650 54231 -61 131 56696 54031 378.70 42668 54230 56138 425.77 50330 

Mexteona ' 121435 0.1 117611 82531 93639 9995.15 03 139 1214.05 117641 821.13 934.44 9985.15 1237.14 791.90 917.11 

ttrew -61 26144 197.14 22670 21638 03 619 29052 28139 19650 22651 21938 29032 235.13 23531 

ntN, ZoNoid nsf 31.7s ai 7931 5535 oooa bsjo oj> 433 ai36 793s smo tax soeo 85.49 7626 7ara 

88602 0.0 231.79 1B236 19433 20610 03 2-51 23611 23239 161.73 18434 20610 24679 21652 21687 

H^nrTi« Z"— 44639 -0.1 42698 301.18 341.78 28734 03 132 4*667 *3665 30038 34149 2B734 46531 355.81 38330 

SSiAwiaa 1—37031 63 35932 25147 28535 33136 03 234 36938 35626 24664 28438 33136 437.78 33691 35146 

173 7? -02 16847 11600 13690 16620 03 639 174-03 18692 117.71 13695 1B320 17688 132.75 13675 

“”337.^ Q2 327.16 22616 26033 331.84 -03 230 33661 32673 22737 25608 331.64 35228 23832 23682 

2SS^8 16603 1B687 18634 03 13* 247.18 23690 167.17 19024 1863* 25634 18138 18630 

SM«nnaM(39j ^ 1Z6 . 1S 14 615 182.00 -05 1.79 18688 18150 12856 14669 18237 1969S 18433 137.80 

TM»na(4BU--^. 15&18 17949 22532 -03 435 23235 22532 15758 17607 22532 23550 20658 207.18 

60 £5946 181.7S 2085* 28737 OO 2.16 26737 2S672 18097 20535 26737 26611 206*1 20655 

: 03 238.75 16634 18618 20618 03 Z18 244.13 23696 16612 18730 20616 2*554 188.06 T8938 

AmeriCB8p75J -£££ 20257 1*1.75 160.84 18067 03 3.05 20680 20237 1*153 16071 18075 20680 17619 17691 

aropepW} al 280.04 19615 22238 2*673 OO 245 28830 28034 19613 22236 24673 29748 2309* 23034 

1«L33 04 16355 11435 12678 11683 03 1.15 187.64 182.72 113-38 12603 1160* 17137 14838 15738 

03 179 45 12539 1*233 141.13 04 234 18*38 17958 12431 142.15 1*030 I860* 16637 18637 

03 2K31 1^15 20132 26006 OO 2.17 29078 253.13 17638 20072 26006 2625B 20233 2K36 

1BO40 -Ol 18*3* 12633 1*676 154.63 -Ol 650 19067 1B536 12836 1*675 154J4 1907* 15617 15938 

gjropafa.UKSIg^ —WSO -O 252.78 -0.1 234 29137 28331 19750 22*42 25239 29338 237.71 243.10 

03 120*6 14330 14632 04 605 16531 16035 12537 14332 144JV 18617 T6&9S 166* 

oi 20672 1*230 181.13 17531 05 131 20631 20238 14133 16072 17531 20934 17609 17609 

K&ijwfffSiS ™ ^°° lWL78 22644 M ^ 23526 183JC 186Ja ***** ***** 19a03 


The Wertd index I237Q. 81150 0 

Common, ft-se mumawqi 


ABNAMRO 


ABN AMRO Bank N.V. 

USS 100-000,000 
Subordinated Collared 
Roarring 
Rate Notes 
1993 due 2005 

In accordance ' with die 
terms and conditions of die 
Nows, notice is hereby 
given that for the interest 
period April 9, 1996 to Octo- 
ber fi ( 1996 the Rate of 
Interest has been fixed at 
R375 per cent and that 
the interest payable on toe 
relevant Interest Payment 
Date. October 8, 1996 

against Coupon No. 7 In res- 
pect of USS 1,000 nominal of 
the Notes will be USS 27.17. 
In respect of USS 10,000 no- 
minal of the Notes will be 
" toSJS 271.74 and In respect of 
100.000 nominal- of toe 
Notes will be USS 2,71756. 

ABN AMRO Bank N.V. 

.. April 3, 1996 


162.79 19030 
i & Part. 1BS6 M i 


610 21036 204.77 14238 16237 160.13 21150 

a. -nreap WwV b a Joint badMiwd ol Tiw FmcW Tanas Untad an 


fSundad 4 Fort 


The Financial Times plans to publish a Surveyor* 

The UK 
Gas Market 


on Monday, April 29. 


^SuKGffisectwentesanewerattel Financial Tines will be publishing 
a survey examlng the threats & opportunities facing the industry. 

The FT reaches tvnythirds of senior business intBvkiuais who make decisions 

on the purchase of fuel & energy in the work place (EBRS -93) 

Emma Goddard 

Tel: +44 (0) 171 873 4053 Fax: +44 (0)171 873 3062 
or yaw usual FT. representative 


Roundup 

There 

was 

good 

news 

in 

TAIPEI yesterday 

as the 

weighted index 

closed 

at 

a 

nine-month high on the news 
that Morgan Stanley might 
include the index in its world- 

wide indices, 

, raising hopes 

that the market would attract 

more foreign funds. 




The index rose per cent 

or 201.44 points to 5.377.19, its 
highest dose since July 18 last 
year and the biggest single-ses- 

sion gain 

since 

December 5, 

1994. 








Inclusion in Morgan Stan- 
ley's world indices could mean 



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that International fund manag- 
ers would have to increase 
their portfolio weightings to 
mirror the market's weighting. 

Earlier in the week the Dow 
Jones World Stock Index began 
including Taiwan's stock 
index. 

KUALA LUMPUR was led 
lower as Tenaga Nasional 
denied that an agreement to 
buy power from the Bakun 
dam had been fi nalis ed. The 
composite index lost 3.00 to 
1,153.00. 

Analysts said uncertainty 
over the power agreement 
might delay the start of the 
Bakun dam construction, as 
Ekran needed a long term 
buyer to help finance the proj- 
ect Ekran fell 15 cents to 
M$R85. 

BANGKOK moved in nega- 
tive territory yesterday but 
ended only slightly lower after 
local mutual funds entered the 
market just before the close 
and bought blue chips. T3ie 
SET index closed at its high for 
the day, off 0.16 at L333.34 on 
Bt&2bn. 

Kraft paper maker Thai Cane 
Paper, which made its debut 
yesterday, dosed at Bt26.75, a 


BtL25 discount to its IPO price. 

BOMBAY reversed a weak 
start to rally strongly boosted 
by selective foreign fund buy- 
ing and short covering. The 
BSE 30 index finned 3158 or 1 
per cent, to 3,443.86. 

• On Thursday, KUALA LUM- 
PUR saw demand for blue 
chips slow down amid rumours 
of a large trade defidt for Jan- 
uary and the composite index 
edged up just 0.43 to 1.156.09. 

SINGAPORE was higher, 
with blue chips leading the 
way, but volumes were modest 
The Straits Times Industrials 
index gained 15.38 to 2^96.48. 

A strong showing by the 
property company. Wing Tat 
encouraged buying in other 
property stocks. 

Wing Tai rose 14 cents to an 
all time high of SS3.90, on a 
revaluation of the company’s 
prospects. 

SEOUL was lower as institu- 
tional investors stayed on the 
sidelines and the composite 
index ended 3.28 weaker at 
88L47. Among blue chips, Sam- 
sung Electronics and Korea 
Mobile Telecom lost Won3,100 
and Won3,000 respectively to 


close at WonSfi,400 and 
Won637,000. 

BANGKOK was weaker as 
domestic investors took profits. 
The SET index fell 9.00 to 
1,333.50 on turnover of Bt45bn. 
Brokers said foreign invest- 
ment was thin and major bank 
and finance issues were sold 
for profits. 

The Stock Exchange of Thai- 
land said on Thursday turn- 
over on the exchange in the 
first quarter was Bt453.71bn. 
up from Bt346.3bn in the same 
1995 period. Foreign investors 
accounted for some Bt280.6bn. 
up 36.2 per cent from 19%. 

SYDNEY ended moderately 
lower in a shortened session 
ahead of the Easter break, with 
a sell-off in the futures late in 
the session causing blue chips 
to slip. The All Ordinaries 
index lost ll at 2 .222.5 . 

WELLINGTON was fraction- 
ally softer also after a session 
that had been shortened. The 
NZSE-4G Capital Index fell 0.17 
to 2,132.90 on turnover of 
NZ$30m. 

HONG KONG, TAIPEI and 
MANILA were closed on 
Thursday. 


LONDON EQUITIES 


(USES AND FALLS 


P8g7h) WO 17 W » BB 

at Teton 39) Z2H 319 MH 5 iSh IB 

(-377) 390 7 ISM 19 IK B 35 

CaaBuy Sctl «0 33 48H n 4tr 9 IP) 

r 48516) 500 m H 3TH 21b 2BD S 

$CC 380 2» 31 36 3# 11W MH 

raraw 390 v* i* 21 >» ztd a 


Opfion 


m 

AW 

jfi 

Hq 

An) 

*» 

Brand Met 

380 

29* 

87 

44 

3 

M# 

15 

(-413W 

420 

10ft 

19# 

27ft 

14 

a 

27# 

Ettnnus 

420 

42 

Sift 

SB 

ft 

5 

9# 

r«57ft) 

460 

12ft 

28ft 

32# 

Mb 

10 

» 

Itinun 

180 

« 

14ft 

» 

2 

5 

9# 

nag#) 

200 

Z 

5 

Oft 

12 

18 

20# 

Lam 

in 

13ft 

21 

25ft 

4# 

a 

11 

(*186#) 

200 

4ft 

12 

11 

16 

M# 

2T# 

Laftnfte 

in 

14ft 

M 

27 

7 

12 

15# 

(186#) 

200 

8 

14# 

IB# 

10 

23 

28ft 

Lucan tads 

200 

Uft 

19 

22ft 

5 

0 

13ft 

1*209#) 

220 

3 

9# 

13 

16 

a 

24# 

PSO 

5® 

27 

*4# 

50ft 

B 

16# 

a 

(■515*1 

550 

6 

19 

>8# 

38# 

43 

55 

PMuytuu 

191 

17# 

a 

- 

1ft 

8 

- 

1*206) 

210 

EH 

12 

- 

Bft 

14# 

- 

Rnaonaai 

420 

31 

45 

50ft 

4 

Wft 

18 

r*44*j 

480 

9 

21# 

29# 

a 

aft 

£ 

m 

900 

56# 

81 

93 

4ft 

M 

23# 

r«7#i 

950 

22 

47 

82# 

30ft 

32# 

43 

Man) 

390 

15 

a 

30 

14ft 

a 

27# 

(*396*) 

420 

3ft 

R 

IB 

37 

42 

46 

Ms-Rop* 

200 

20ft 

25# 

30# 

2 

6H 

B 

rzi9i 

220 

7 

14ft 

20 

10 

15 

17ft 

Traco 

ao 

9ft 

Eft 

20 

m 

16 

20# 

rzaisfl 

300 

Z 

1 

12# 

a 

a 

33 

UMBtecute 

240 

16 

M 

a 

4 

BH 

13 

paw#) 

280 

7ft 

14 

a 

14ft 

19 

a# 

Vdttrimn 

240 

a 

27# 

34 

4 

10ft 

14 

(155ft) 

2G0 

> 

17 

23H 

T2# 

W# 

23# 

wmms 

300 

a 

22ft 

a 

4 

7 

11 

r317ft) 

S30 

3 

7ft 

ii 

a 

24ft 

a 

0#r 


Jm 

*0 

Ok 

Jen 

Sep 

Dee 

«*ey Nad 

BO 

33 

41# 

54# 

13# 

24# 

a 

("562#) 


n 

3Dft 

31ft 

43 

52 

55# 

Anttari 

m 

13 

19# 

22ft 

8# 

1ZH 

M# 

HB3) 

200 

E 

n 

14 

20h 

23# 

25ft 

Baajye 

TOG 

43# 

58ft 

67 

13# 

25ft 

» 

C722) 

750 

17ft » 30ft 

Q 

38# 

51 

a# 

HueChUB 

330 

21 

29# 

34ft 

9ft 

Bft 

a 


xo 

7ft 

15 

a 

27 

32# 

X 

BrttriiGs 

220 

17 

19ft 

a 

B 

B 

13 

(■234WJ 

240 

9 

19 

13ft 

I7ft 

a 

24# 

DUns 

460 

2ZH 

a 

42 

17 

27# 

» 

r4sij 

500 

7ft 

15# 

a 

43ft 

51ft 

53# 

Form . 

343 

28 

31ft 

- 

- 

1 

- 

r367*) 

373 

7ft 

10# 

- 

7ft 

Wft 

- 

WWWI 

160 

19 

19# 

am 

3 

G 

7 

H78 


5 

7* 

16 

12# 

15 

17 

UD|dSlSB 

292 

lift 

- 

- 

4 

- 

- 

(*316) 

322 

13 

- 

- 

15 

- 

- 

Lontu 

200 

n 

20# 

a 

4# 

8ft 

10 

r2iD 

220 

B 

W 

16 

14ft 

IB# 

a 

Nannwer 

460 

43* 

45# 

s 

8ft 

M 

IB 

(■482) 

SB 

19 

21 

3< 

26# 

32# 

37# 

Sen PniHr 

330 

MH 

40 

42# 

K 

7# 

9# 

r357ft) 

3ED 

11 

21ft 

35 

11# 

20# 

22# 

Sean 

100 

4 

7ft 

9 

5 

7# 

Bft 

(100#) 

110 

1 

4 

5 

13 

Uft 

15 

Tarnnc 

120 

Uft 

IS 

17 

4ft 

7# 

11 

paq 

130 

fi 

IS 

12ft 

M# 

13 

16* 

n»ra as 

1700 

07164# 187# 

37ft 

51ft 

66 

(irao) 

1*0 

■nt 

110134# 

77* 

96 1 

110# 

Tmfchs 

260 

12 

ttft 

m 

B 

15# 

17ft 

rao) 

280 

4# 

0* 

12# 

22 

28# 

29# 

onto 


Jb 

- 

- 

Jb 

- 

- 

Ftons 

260 

E 

- 

- 

# 

. 

- 

FBSl 

280 

ft 

- 

- 

ifflt 

- 




On Thursday 

Rises Fa Be 

Same 

On the week 

Riew Fris 

Same 

British Funds 

29 

11 

30 

151 

71 

56 

Otfwr Fked Interest 

S 

1 

5 

8 

1 

47 

Mineral Extraction 

45 

90 

82 

262 

310 

296 

QenaraJ Marulacimre 

168 

105 

381 

638 

490 

1*67 

Consumer Goods 

53 

41 

1*0 

2*4 

163 

532 

Services 

1*3 

67 

296 

541 

3*2 

1.137 

Utnttas 

22 

6 

17 

7D 

43 

67 

Rnendli 

09 

93 

211 

376 

312 

680 

Investment Trusts 

1*7 

48 

392 

602 

232 

1.514 

Others 

45 

54 

55 

212 

164 

210 

Totals 

748 

516 

1,609 

3.104 

2.128 

6238 

Dare breed on those companies Ssad an the London Shoe Semen. 





TRADmONAL OPTIONS 

Pint Darings Aprt 1 

last Darings Apr! 12 


Expiry 

Settlement 


Cats: Cafluna, Fortune OB, Jarvis, Video Logic. Puts; Spring Rem. Pids & CaUK Aust 
6 Otars Rm, Boos. Bro&mml. Gem Bhw. 

LONDON RECENT ISSUES: EQUITIES 


Issue 

Amt 

A AL 



Close 






pnee 

paid 

cap 

1996 

pnee 


Net 

Dfv. 

Gm 

P/E 

p 

UP 

Kmj 

Mflh 

Low Stock 

P 

*7- 

(hi. 

cov. yld 

net 


F ?. 

285 

68 

95 Advent VCT 

95 


re 

- 

- 

- 

_ 

F.P. 

ICO 

84i 2 

20 Aegis WHS 

24 


- 

- 

- 

- 

w 

FJ>. 

73L2 

245 

243 AKHrtMMu 

243 


- 

- 

- 

- 

- 

FP. 

143 

B5 

95 British SfttrCoB 

95 


- 

- 

- 

- 

- 

FA 

21.1 

235 

230 Canbridge Wlr NV 

235 


thvia 

IT 

ae 

4.7 

55 

FP. 

63.1 

00 

58 Chrism Wage 

60 


V- 

- 

- 

- 

_ 

FP. 

285 

95 

65 taoee Bras VCT 

95 


- 

- 

- 

- 

270 

FP. 

315 

325 

305 Dram 

307 

-3 

- 

- 

- 

70.9 

100 

FP. 

15* 

137 

105 Easynet 

108 

-2 

- 

- 

- 

- 

IBS 

FP. 

36.7 

1B3 

180 tow Into 

161 

-2 

- 

- 

- 

- 

_ 

FP. 

457 

55 

S3 Renting Mid inc 

53 

-1 

456 

- 

9J 

- 

- 

FP. 

ma 

194 

163 Fufcrur 

194 

*2 

1*0 

2.7 

2^ 

169 

- 

FP. 

SIP 

£6 

BOS GTlncGmnra 

95 

- 

- 

- 



- 

FP. 

SO A 

BB 

SO Gotmom verr 

97 


- 

- 

- 

- 

- 

FP. 

21.4 

9S 

95 Gutmese R VCT 

95 


- 

- 

- 

- 

ion 

FP. 

272 

97 

96 HB Snri UK Emg Co 

96 


- 

- 

- 

- 

- 

FP. 

OB3 

80 

90 Hulngtnm Rapa 

60 


- 

- 


- 

75 

FP. 

181 

B8 

75*a IPGmjp 

94 

-2 

- 

- 

- 

119 

100 

50 

210 

55 

49 LHe Offices Opport 

53>£ 


- 

- 

- 

- 

145 

FP. 

1086 

191 

145 Macdonald Hotels 

187 


RWV4H 

2-3 

2.7 

20.3 

126 

FP. 

111 

.130 

113 tVame & Man: 

125 

-5 

- 

- 

- 

- 

_ 

FP. 

280 

702 

675 Now Asia Fund 

683 


- 

- 

- 

- 

205 

FP. 

r.tce 

244 

23 0 Orange 

234 

■*3 

- 

- 

- 

- 

- 

FP. 

7JW 

a 77 n 

95 

95 talkie AM VCT 

IW Qofn [m 0 

95 

AlT 



" 

" 

" 

500 

F.P. 

17/.U 

515 

tW rBfp 4HC & OWul 

31 J 






100 

FP. 

185 

106 

103 tPmvy rttti Props 

103 


- 

- 

- 

- 

- 

FP. 

182 

90 

90 Ovester VCT 

90 


- 

“ 

- 

- 

32 

F.P. 

106 

34 

32 Raphael Zorn 

34 


¥155 

1.3 

45 

213 

_ 

F.P. 

27W 

102 

102 Scottish Aslan C 

102 


- 

- 

- 

- 

3 

FP. 

406 

4 

3*3 SfearShUd 

a 

->« 

V* 

- 

- 

156 

120 

FP. 

370 

141 

123 Sadun&oup 

IX 

-2 

L>OB 

11 

15 

11.3 

115 

FP. 

183 

136 

121 tSystS hwg fech 

122 

-e 

- 

- 

- 

- 

_ 

FP. 

183 

513 

503 TbinmosTetUt 

513 


- 

re 

re 

re 

135 

FP. 

483 

184 

153 Tried Group 

194 

♦i 

RvUS 

10 

16 

«4 


t AtamOn kraesamn Mahn For a tuB anotamUBi ol an ottiof syntwta | 
Stare Sarvfco nmea. 


RIGHTS OFFERS 

Issue Amount Latest 


prise 

P 

143 

Ronua 

date 

IBM 

High Low 

Stock 

Closing 

pn»P 

♦or- 

460 

Nl 

12/4 

92pm 

77pm 

AUbon Mead Vick 

7Bpm 


B75 

m 

20 » 

93pm 

39pm 

Ekioa UtB 98rtn 

58pm 

-5 

60 

NB 

BA 

10pm 

Bpm 

FMmoyOmjp 

Bprn 


SOS 

Ml 

16/4 

2aj*n 

13pm 

GWRUta 96/01 

13pm 

-1 

675 

Ml 

19/4 

110pm 

105pm 

VDC 

105pm 



pm pise*™. 

FINANCIAL TIMES EQUITY INDICES 

Apr 4 Apr 3 Apr 2 Apr i Mar 29 Yr 


■High low 


* Undertpng Marty idea. Plantains shown oe 
bated on seUamant pneae. 

April * Total contracts. Equity and Indm apoonx 
29492 coax 11268 Putac 1&3M 


FT GOLD MINES INDEX 


% cfag Apr Tw Grots rib HE 

4 no thy 8 ago yMri % i»8o 

l(U) 228891 -19 232058 188288 141 


Onkwy im 

ZTBa.7 

27B4.0 

2796-5 

27816 

27680 

24*7.1 

2B07-9 

26967 

Otd. tflv. yield 

3-67 

3M 

366 

3J0 

302 

452 

4JJ6 

3.76 

WE ratio net 

1880 

1856 

1&66 

16.49 

1641 

1683 

1725 

15.96 

P/E ratio nt 

1656 

1824 

1834 

1617 

1609 

1673 

17413 

15.78 

Qnfrwy Shore Mh etice emptstttK high 2807V 05SEH96; tor 49L4 2BIB SOS. Base DttK 1*7*36. 

OnJhwy Store hooriy ehange* 







Open BOO 

10M 11J» 12X0 13JOO T4JJ0 1800 

1600 

"flh 

Low 


27864 27863 2795.7 27964 27974 27965 27967 Z797.B 279BJJ 2799J 2788.1 


- 252833 T72ZJ8 


4*43(131 snzis *03 2BBH37 2837. JO £72 34Jf 25308 2272.74 

tMffh4.fl 287615 -1.1 270018 231853 ZJ» 2605 232754 209651 

MM) Araarti (12} 2041.43 -1.7 207645 1857.80 058 8553 218639 148684 

CuiartadiL The Pkmtatf nm«s umBad 1998. IT Ode Minas ind*r a ■ nrJonurit ot The RrmncM 
TtamunfeKl Ftajures m breefceta show nutate of oorapirtM. 9ml» US Dobra. Boa Wum 100600 
31712(82- 1 Pawl 



Apr* 

Apr 3 

Apr 2 

Apr 1 

Mar 29 

Yr ago 

SEAO bargains 

48,156 

46354 

52.469 

*6817 

*4,410 

33,621 

Equity turnover {Bri)t 

- 

1990.1 

30633 

11364 

20906 

1772.1 

Equity bargainer 

- 

64,790 

SI 385 

53,709 

*6875 

49^46 

Statue traded (mOt 

- 

8668 

7703 

5268 

742.1 

7402 


tEjjrtjdtng mmn na ha tue taw i 










r 








FINANCIAL TIMES WEEKEND APRIL C*\PRIL T/APRH- * 



from *« C S^, Sf y w T bato * taw bwn taken with con s ent 

rapfoduced Exchar ^ a Official List and should not be 

view. 8,810 *° those securltl6s not nduded In the FT Share Information 


LONDON STOCK EXCHANGE: Dealings 


which the business ^ ^ P^ 88 ®» •*«“ 

settled thmuah'^o h ^ 24 houra “P *° 5 pm on Wednesday and 

sxpv. r 5 * 3 ? ^ XC ^ an ° e Talaman system, they are not in order of 

&£££ but In ascending order which denoted the cfc^T highest and lowest 

in wt ** 1 00 business was recorded in Wednesday's 
^ She retell t^e™ 00 " 1 * 1 bus(ness 10 “* •*“ P f6vious da vs is given 
J Bargains at special prices. $ Bargains done the previous day. 


British Funds, etc 


Trwaay 13%% s* 2000/03 . £122% 
ZZ1221J 


Corporation and County 
Stocks 


Lrmdon Couity 2>j>, Cons Stk 192Q(cr s raw) 

■ enh I2NJ9S 


Bkrvnphani Corp 2lj% &k T926(ar afton 
tt/ta BAb“ 


i CApea 

amsneham Corp 3% [19021 l932(or aftari ■ 

C32Vt2A<*fcn 

Brmwqnwn Corp 3lj% Stk l»*6(or aftert - 
E3fi^pAp90) 

Bacttum top 3»j% bra Stk ■ £36% 
(2Ao96) 

Croydon top 3’j*t> Stk - E38-W CApBfll 
Glasgow top 3'2% tad Sib - £38>j (2ApW) 
HJ top3laH SBqlst tra) - £38% CApSS) 
H iM top 3l?9fe SMZnd fee) - 139 % &ApS>6) 
Leeds Corp 3% Deb Stk 182?|cr alter) - 
C32%PAp96t 

Norwtcti top 3% Rao Stk - t32\ (24p961 
Hoamng ton 3% Stk ISMlcr after) - E32 7 a 
CVtpM) 

Heading top 34% Stk - E384 GAp90) 


UK Public Boards 


Pod d London Autnonry 3% Port of London 

A Stk 2a*99 - £88 94 (29Mr96) 


Foreign Stocks, Bonds, etc- 
(coupons payable in London) 


Abbey Na&raul Treasury Sravs PLC 5% Ctd 
Nq 1997 (BrSVdrtoua) - 3994 (2Ao9GI 
AtOo) National Treasury Sravs ILC 7.123% 
Old Nt3 2001 - £96.6 .65 [29Mr901 
Abbey Notional Treoaray Sens PLC 74% 
Old Nts 1996 (Bt £ Var) - £101# 

Abbey Naoonal Treasury Save PLC 0% Gtd 
Nts 1998 ©rt. V*1 ■ £0383754) 

Abbey Matronal Treasury Sens PLC 8% GU 
Bus 2003 (Br C Van - CSS’s 15 J >2 
Argyll Group PLC 8.12S% Bda 2002 (Br 
CIOPOCIOOOO&IlOOOO) ■ CS84 (lApMl 
ASOA Group PLC 94% BA 
SOtEBriM 000*10000) ■ 010*4 (HMteffl 
BAA PLC 54% to Bda 2006 
IBtHODtUOKn - Cl 084 1064 1064 
BAA PLC 54% Cnv Bds 2006 (HagMiLQ - 
Ct07i 2 »: 

BOC Group PLC 64% Bus 200*/Br£ Vara) - 
GM4 

Barclays Bank FLC 6 9% Nts 2004taCVart- 
Ous) - £89 4 ♦ 

Barclays Bank PLC 9% Perm bit B&nr\j 
Capital BdstBrt Var) - ISO (29M961 
Bradford & Sngky Bulbing SodetyCoRarad 
FngftleNta 2nSURag MUUC1000) - E964 
CMM$ 

Bradford & Bngtav Buftkng SxMrCoind 

Ftlg Rse Nts 2003 (Br C Vflr) - £984 
(1AO061 

Britan Gas Inti France BV Zero Cpn Qd 
80S 2021 (BrSVar) - $13.85 (29Mr96) 
Brtusn Gas PLC 74% BUS 2000 IBr £ Vra) - 
C9995 (2Ap9S 

Brnan On PlC 64% Bus 2003 (Br £ Vat) - 
£98 (1Ap96) 

Annan Gas PIC 64% Bds 2006 (Br E Var) - 
£884 

British Tekecommrtcaflans PLC Zara Cpn 
Bda 2000fflrci oooai otnoi - £744 EAp9» 
British Tetecornr m aacations PLC 74% Beta 
2003 (Br £ Var) - £334 -B 
Baton TatecomrtiLbkcatroaa PLC 84% Bds 
2020CBr£Van1 - £944 (lApSQ 
Bun Finance PLC 104% Subord GU Beta 
2018 (Br C Var) - £974 (lAp96) 

Burmah Canral CapcaftJarsey) Ld 94% Cnv 
I - £1664 7 4 


Cap Beta 2006 (Bag £1000) ■ 


CSFB Finance BV Gtd Subord Fftg Rte Nto 
2003 IBr S Vah - S96 (1Ap96l 
CheMenbani S Gkxicester PLC 11 4% 
PerpSutxnt Btta (Beg £50000) - £121.1 
(1Ap96) 

DenmaMKkigdom at) 64% Nts 1998 (Br E 
Van - £99.15 3 (IAp66) 
toons Group Treasury PLC 74% Gtd BUS 
2004Or£Vanous) - £944 
Eastern Group PLC 84% Bets 200MBr£ Vara) 
- £974 (2Ap96l 

Bt Enterprise Rrcmce PLC 84% GU Ext* 
Bda 2006 (Beg £50001 - £102-865$ 3.36$ 
Expon-lmpon Bank at Japsm 64% Gtd Bda 
2005(BrS Vah - 5964 (29MI96) 


FnbndfRapiitic of) 104% Beta 1996 - 
noeli CAp9Q 


Foregn 8 Col. Pacific Inv Tsi PLC 3% Cnv 
Bds 2000 (Br Y1 OOOOOOI - Y1144 pA()964 
Forte PLC 94% Bds 2003 Or C Var) - £994 
Gtiro Welcome PLC 6.125% Nts 2006 (BrS 
Var) - 5954 (29M196) 

Glaxo Wctkrame PLC 64% Bds 2005(Br£ 
Vani - £100 AS (2ApS6) 

HSBC Holdings PLC 9 7 i% Subord Bds 2016 
|Br C Van • £102 (2Ap9® 

HUlax BuUng Society toLsed Fttg Ftte Nts 
2003 <9r C Var) - £974 (1Ap96) 

Hanson PLC 94% Cnv Subord 2006 (Br 
£Van - H00 4 CAp96l 
Hanson Trust PLC 10% BOS 2006 (BriKOOO) 

- £1054 HAp»1 

Hokkadn Electnc Pcnrer Cd Inc 8.125% Nts 
20001 Br SlOOOO&SlOOOOOl - £99$ 

Japan Development Bonk 74% Gad Nta 
2003 (BrC Van - £96 

Japan Fin Coro tor Mmopal Era. 64% Gtd 
BOS 300ft8rUSS50006 100000) - 596. 1 
LodbrcAe Croup RnonceiJersaylLd 9% Cnv 
Cap Bds 2005 iBrtSOOOai 000001 - £974 
Land Securities. PLC 9% Bds 2020IBr CVars) 

- C97 2 (tAp*) 

Lasmo PLC 74% Cnv Bds 

2CO5lBr€lD00&1CliO01 - C90* 2 
Lloyds Bar* PLC 74% SUaord Bda 
20CU(Br£VanouSI - C92.6 CAB96) 

Lloyds Bank PLC 94% Subod Bds 2023 (Br 
f Van ■ C1004 (1Ap96l 
London Elect ncity F\C 9% Bds 2003 (Br C 
Van £97.65 

Lorutn Finanp) FLC 8% OtdCnvBds 
2 Ck%(BrCtOOO, 50000. 100000) - £1154 
E.1TPC PLC 104% Bds 
2M3(Br£lOtX»iaOOOl ■ Ciorjft (lAp9Q 
Nanona) Gnd Co PLC 74% Bds 1996 (Br £ 
vai - Cl 00.55 (29MrWI 
Naliarul Gnd Co n.C 6% Beta 2006 IBr £ 
Van - C9L7j (2Ap961 

National iVestnumstt* Bar* PLC * *4% U*J- 
SuWtls ClOOOiCnv to PrOHeg - £1074 
National Wesrmmstn Bonk PLC 11 4% Und- 
SubNb. ClOOOiCnv to PrOBr ■ £1064 
(2AP96) 

Nauonuidc Buiding Society 114% Nts 1997 
iBr CfOOO & 1000001 - C104 
Nippon Telegraph a Tel e phone Coro 6% Nts 
2000 ■ 999. 1 iZSMrOB) 

Norway iKmgdori oft 7% Nts 1996 (Br 
S5000&100000I ■ S1004 CAp96l 
Osaka Gas Co Ld 8.125% Beta 2003 (Br £ 
Van - W8 

Pmdunliai Finance BV 94% Gtd Bds 2007 
iBrCSOHH 1000001 ■ £1034 
BMC Cocxldl Ld 8 4% Cnv Cop Bds 2006 (Br 
£50005500(10) - £1214 2 DAp96l 
Flank i>gjnls,ition PLC B4% Bds 2000 (Br £ 
van £10)4 i2Ac96) 

Robert Fiemnq bill Fbunce Ld 94% Porp 
Subord Gld Nts IBr C Vort ■ OM 
SabcburviJ) PLC 84% Bds 1996 (Br 
ssaoo&ioooocn - cue iTavrosi 
Salmdu'Y U-HCfiannd blantalLd 
B4-SCnvCapBds 2005<Br £50008)00000) ■ 
£1154 CApQ6) 

SEE BOARD FLC B4% Bds 2005(Br £ Vk) - 
£«4 i1Ap96) 

Tarmac Finance IJonoyl Ld 94% Cnv Cop 
Brfc 2006 (Reg £10001 - £90 6 4 ^5 7 
Tate 8 Lyle bn Fui PLC 54% GW Bda 2001 
IBr £5000) - CB64 CAo961 
Taee&Lvk: IntFln PLi2.ToloU.yle FLC 54% 
TUftfrGdBdS 2001(Br) W/VTOT&LPLC - 
£864 

Tesco FLC 104% Bds 2002 IB r EVarl - 
Ct09J(1Ap96t 

nijmas Water PLC 94% CrwSubcnBds 
20061Br£5000JV500001 ■ £133 4 4 
3) bttcrruttonad BV >4% GU BOS 2003 (Br C 
Van - C»4 

WartkrtftS.O.1 Group PLC 9% Pan Subord 
Nts (PepNuflrQ - £934$ 


YorksHra BeeWefly Group PLC 84% Bda 
20QS(BriVar) - E984 BBMi9« 

Yorkshire Beartctty Qrtxp PLC 84% Bds 
2005«Beg) - ESVa (1Ap96) 

Yamonra Bectnaty Grom plC 94% 
Bds2020(Reg£t ka mUn thereof) - £97 
I1AP96I 

Abbey National Traauy Sena PLC 
PTE3,B50m t Nfc Bfl 1«B - PE95B4 
(291*96) 

Aboey Nebonai Treasury 5ms PlC 
ESCSOOttn FRN \BJW97 - £90.58 (1Ap96) 

Abbey Naooncd Treasury Brava PLC 
PTEaaoarn 3% Nts 8/10*7 - PE91A5 
C9ft*9G| 

LraidaskreditDra* Badai-Wiraembrag 
DM1 OOrn 5^5% Nts 7711/2000 - DM97.7 
B9M96) 

MrSard Bra* PLC E200m 9% Den Inst 23/ 
11/2006 - C10QA 

Nadonef Fmenoere SJLC R2SOm 17% Mb 

xmaa-f&iU 

Norftier n Rock BiAdng Society ElOro FRN 
19/3/2001 - £99.70 

PWSlao Inc ASlOOm 7.10% Nts 23/2/2000 - 
SAB2.9 CSMrOei 

Sera Lee C urou t ra wn SlOOm 6% Nts 27/1 1/ 

88 ■ 8flfllg 

Sate Bank of New South Wtas Id 9% Btta 

2002 (Br SA Vei) - SA101 4 (2Ap96) 

SudwestdeuMcheLandb a nkCapMdsPLC 
SSOOm 5J)7S% Den hat 10/30001 - 
S96.1 (1A096) 

SwawryKingdoro oft C330m 74% Beta 2B/7/ 
2000 -£99.95 

Swiss Bank Corporator C2S0m &75% 
StiDora Bds 2(VW200S - £1002 

Toyota Motor Credft Corpor at ion S7bOm 
6.125% Nts 11/10/2000 - *100 (29AA96) 


Sterling Issues by Overseas 
Borrowers 


Bank or Greece 104% Ln Stk 2910CPeg) - 
£1034 11AP96) 

Etbopeen bnreuuimm Bar* 9% Ln S<k 2001 
(Reg) - £106 

European brveetmera Bar* 94% Ln Stk 
2009 - £1064 Q (29**96) 

European hivas t mam Bank 104% Ln Stk 
2004{Reg) - £1124 

Euopaan imoatment Bank )1% Ln Stk 
200aiRag) - £1 144 (2AP96) 

Hydro-Ouebec 15% Ln Stk 2011 - £144 
(2Ap96) 

WeroatiorM* Bank for Rec 8 Dev 11.5% Ln 
Stk 2003 - Cl 19$ 

New Zeeland 11 4% Stk 2008(Bea) - £119 
fiApeB) 

New Zealand 11 4% Stk aoiafftetf - £124,% 

p m — 

Nova ScottalProutnca of) 11 4% Ln Stk 201B 

- £120 (29Mr9Q 

Nova ScotlafProvInce at) 164% Ln Stk 2011 

- £1—4 (291*961 

Petroteoo Mekfaanoe 1*4% Ln Stk 2006 - 
£108 11 (1Ap06) 

PortugaHRep oft 9% Ln Stk 2016(B0 - £100% 
fiAp86) 

Provkiee de Ouebec 124% In Stk 2020 - 
£123 (1Ap96) 

SwedonlKbigaam of) 94% Ln Stk 2014(Betf 

- £1064 (2SMr96) 

Swea«n(k3ngaom oft 13^% Ln Stk 

20lOfReg) - £1374 (2Ap96) 


Listed Companies{exduding 
Investment Trusts) 


ABF Investments PIC 54% Uns Ln Stk 67/ 
20IE SOp -424 

ABF Investments PLC 74% Una Ln Stk 87/ 
2002 50p- 454 (29Mi06) 

ASH Cap/a Finance^ eraeyfld 94% Cnv 
Cra Btta 2006 (Reg Untie lOCpf - £63 
CAP9G] 

Abbey National PLC 104% Non-Oan Sia^ 
Bng FYf - 1044$ 

Abbey National PLC 10 1/16% ExchCatfRep- 
DanomClOO OW rae o f ) - £1024 
Abbot Group F4£ 74% ton Cnv Bad FM £1 

- 62 

Atoaon Group PLC R25p (Net) Cnv ton Ftad 
Prf 10p - 73 DApBO) 

ABed Doinacq PLC ADR (1:1) • *7 £3 7J85 
MM d Domecq PLC 54% CUn Prf £1 - 63 
ASed Domecq PLC 74% ton Prf Ei - 82 
flAuOM 

Ailed Donrecq PIC ll4% Deb Stk 2009 - 
£1224 (2BM96) 

Ailed Domecq PLC 54% Una Ln Stk - £56 
Ailed Domecq PLC 74% Uns Ln Srk - £824 
(ZAp96) 

/wed Domecq PLC 74% Una Ln Stk 33/38 - 
£90 

AKed Domecq Fin a nci a l Sens PLC 64% 
GtdCnvSubonSd32006 RegMitCIOOO - 

£904 100 

**ed London Proprattaa PLC 10% ton Prf 
£1 - IIOPSMBG) 

AMs PLC 5J5% Cnv ton Non-Vtg Rad Pit 
£1-856 

Amancan Brands Inc She of Com Stk 53.125 
-*444 

Amertiecn Corp Shs of Com Stk Ji -SS*S3 

(29Mr9a 

Amlnex PLC Ord KDC5 - 45, 1 7 4 4 *4 4 
Andrews Sykes Group ILG Cnv FM 50p - 78 
IIAoB® 

Anglian Waur FLC 54% hdax-Unked Ln 
Stk 2006(8.478%) - £129 (1Ap86) 

Asoa Property HWgs PLC 9.125% 1st Mtg 
Deb Stk 2020 - £974$ 

Astta Property Httga PIC 10 5/16% 1st Mtg 
Deo Stk 2011 - £106(5 (29MT361 
Auurruted SecuttyfFfldga) F*LC 5% tor ton 
Red PH £1 - 62,’.$ 

Auromraed Securtiy^adgs) PLC 6% Cnv Cum 
Red Prf £1 - 53 (2Ap961 
Automotive ProtkJCC. PLC 3J% Cum FM £1 - 
43(iAp961 

AutomoOve Products PLC 4.55% Cum 2nd 
FM £1 - — I1AP96) 

Automotive Ftoxtacta FLC 9% Cum FM £1 - 
92* (29MTJ6) 

BAT IrakEtrlas PLC ADR (2:11 - *154$ 

BET PLC ADR (4:H - *124$ ^8$ 

BOC Group PLC 23% ton 2nd FM £1 - 

444P9NW61 

BOC Group PLC 33% Cum 2nd Frt £1 - 
554 C29MT96) 

BOC Group PLC 124% Una Ln Stk 2012/17 
- £128.13$ >2$ 

0TP PLC 7.5p(NBl) Cnv Cun Rad Pit IGp - 
166 (2Ap96) 

BTR PLC ADR (4.H - *193B 
Bdtoy(C>L) PLC *B' Ord 1 0p - 25 C9M96) 
Borrnr Homes Group FLC Ora lOp - 75 
Bodays PLC ADR (4:1 1 - *4435 CApBBI 
Barclays Bonk FLC 12% Uns Cap Ln Stk 
2010 - £121 

Barclays Bra* f\C 16% Lkts Cep In SB. 

2002/07 - £1364 7 p9Mr3Q 
Bradan Group FL.C 73Sp (Net) Cnv Fted Prf 
25p - S3$ 4$ 6$ 

Badon Group PLC 3.65% Curr Prf £1 - 45 

(1AP96) 

Bradon Group FLC H35p Cum Red Prt 
2005 10p- 112 

Bamato EuptomUan Ld Od FKL01 - 110 
Bam & WaBaoe Arnold Truat PLC Ord 25c - 
224 6 30 2 

Bose PLC ADR (2D) - 123.63 
Bess PLC 104% Deb Stk 2016 -Cl 134 4 
Boss PLC 74% Uns LnStk 92/97 - £994 
Bellway PLC 95% Cum Red Prt 2014 £1 - 
1064 

Bergasoi d-y AS 'B* Non Vig Shs MOJ - 

NK1093B £ (2AC96I 

Btrmmgnam MKBMres BuBdng Sac 94% 
Perm 111 Bearing Shs £1000 - E96.45 4 4 

4 t 

Bkae OndB Industries PLC AOR (1:11 - 55 
(291*96) 

Blue Orola Irekatnos PLC 54% 2nd Dab Stk 
1084/2009 - £774 CApSffl 
Bkw Circle Industries FLC 64% Une Ln 
SMT975 Or aft) - £654 (ZApflQ 
Boddingwn Orara PLC 4% Deb Stk Perp - 
£44(ZAp96J 


Bradiord & Bngtay Bating Sodetyl 1 4% 
“ 1 -£1184 


Pram Inc Besting 9 b £10000 
Bradford 1 Bingtoy Buktng SocWIVl3% 
FLrm Ini Bervhg 9 b £10000 - £1324 3 
4-SS 

Bratton Property Trust PLC 104% Gum Prt 
£1 - 109(2Ap96) 

Brent International FLC 9% Cum Fled Prf £1 
- 99 (29M96) 


FT-SE ACTUARIES INDICES 


The FT-SE Actuaries Share incfices ara calculated by FT-SE International 
Limited at conjunction with the Faculty of Actuaries and the Institute of 
Actuaries. 

0 FT-SE International Limited 1996. All rights reserved. 

The FT-SE Actuaries indices are calculated In accordance with a 
standard set of ground rules established by FT-SE International Limited 
in conjunction with the Faculty of Actuaries and the Institute of Actuaries. 

'FT-SE' and *1=001818’ are trademarks of the London Stock Exchange 
and The Financial Times Limited and are used by FT-SE International 
Limited under licence. 

Auditor The WM Company. 


Constituent lists and additional information on aS the FT-SE Intama- 
tfonal index products are avalabte from: FT-SE International United, The 
Podium, St Atphage House. 2 Fore Street London. EC2Y 5DA. Tele- 
phone: (0171 UK or 44 171 Wemational eaflere) 448 1810. Facsimie: 
(0171 UK or 44 171 international) 448 1834. 


Bren Wttaot Qnav PLC Wes ro Bud lor ora 
-04 (2Ap96) 

ton! WSfcra Gra^ plc Var R» 2nd Cnv 
Red PIT 2000/2007 El ■ 24 (29M/9G) 

Bren! WdorGnf PLC 83% M Nan-Cum 
Cnv Rad 2007/10 £i -04 BAp06) 

Bristol Warn- plc 64% Cum Vra Prt Cl - 
109 

BrtaTOI Water RjC 114% BeJ Deb Stk 2004 
- £1174 C29Mr96l 

Bristol WaMr Hdgs PLC Ort Cl -1231 
1231 

BnsXd Water Mags RX 6.75% ton Cnv 
Red Prf 1908 SJh H - ISC (29kW6J 
Bristol A Meat BuUng Society 134 % Pram 
H Berafrig Shs £1000 - Ct3fl4 74 4 
BltervM BUvang Soaery 13 % FMmi tot 
Beatog Shs Cl 000 - £132 4 44 
Brtflsh AJrrrays PLC ADR (10:1) - 3804 
Brtfeh-Amerfcan Tobacco Co Ld 5% ton Prf 
Stk£1 -525 

Sri&gb-Amraroan Tobacco Co Ld 6% 2nd 
Cum Prt Slk £i - 61 4 & (2ApB6) 

Brttth FH&ngs Grn4l PLC S3% Cnv Red Prf 
£1 -65 

British tea Co PLC 6% Subon) lmj Cnv 
BdsfReg) - £87 HAp96) 

British Lana Co PLC 104% DM 1st Mtg Dob 
SIk 2019/24 - £10634 (29Mr96) 

British Laid Co PLC 11 4% FM Mtg Deb 
Stk 2019/24 - C11637 (29MI96) 

British FMtrtfeun Go PLC 8% Cum 1st FM £1 
• 90 

flntisn Petrofeim Co PLC 9% ton 2nd Prf 
£1-957 

Brush Steel PLC ADR (10:1) - 130373968 A 
British Steel PLC 1 14% DeO Stic 2016 - 
£1224 flApesi 

Brt.Kn Estate PLC 950% Isl Mg Deb Stk 
2026 - £1024 (2Ap661 
Brtxton Estau PLC 104% 1st Mtg Deb Sfli 
2012 - E112S 

BrownUolviJ PLC 54% Sec Ln SB. 2003 - 
£79 

Brum HoUngs plc 44p (Net) Onv ton 
Red Prf 20p - 54 (2Ap9€) 

SutgvXA^J a Co PLC ora sm Sp - 52 
(lAp96) 

SutoMrfFLPJHdgs PLC 64% 2nd ton Prf 
ci - 111 4 PAcoa 

BJmer9tPJF*Jg* PLC 94% Cum Prf Cl - 
123(2Ap9« 

Burmeh Castro) PLC 74% ton Red Prt Cl - 
60 

Bwmeh Costroi PLC 6% ton FM Ci - 63$ 
Bondene tavestmera PLC 15% Line Ln Srk 
2007/12 - £123 (iAp«) 

Burton Group PLC 8% Uns Ln Stk 1396/ 

2001 - £97 4 4 6 4 4 
Buoe Mrang PLC 10 % (Nat) Cnv ton Ftsd 
Prf 1934 IQp-34 (2BMI961 
CALA PLC 4% Cum Red Prt £1 • 40 
CoCnragy Co me Shs of ton Stk SO-0675 - 
S26>; .749108 (1Ap9^ 

CamMdge Water PLC Cans CM Stk - 
£10800 

Coon* 8 Courtoes PIC 94% 1st Mtg Deb 
Stk 2027 - £105 13 9ft 09Mi9fQ 
Capri* S Counties PLC 114 % 1st Mtg Oeb 
Stk 2QT1 - £11813 (29Mr96) 

Cartlon Oomm u ric ati o ro PLC ADR (5:1) - *36 
E(2Ap9® 

Carlton Communications PLC 74% Cnv 
Suboro Bds 2007(Reg £5000) - Cl 674 
CanrpCtar Inc Shs of Com SA *1 - *664 
Cementone PLC Wts lo SuO lor Ord - 6 
C2AO06) 

Cflfflw Corporation She ot Com Six 5035 - 
$304 (2AaS6l 

Chrafarood Aiaonce HkJgs Ld 74% Urro Ln 
Stk 50o - 34 (iAp96) 

City Sris Mans PLC 1030% la Mlg Deb 
Stk2017-£90(1Ap06) 

CKy Shu Estates PLC 535% Cnv ton Red 
Prf £1 -58 

asytttM PLC 93% Stritttd Cnv Uns Ln Stk 
200C/01 - £95 

Oevraand Place HiMnra PLC 124% Rea 
Dab Stk 2008 - £123)3 PSMrSfi) 

Coaaa Corporation Steel Com Stk S033 1/ 
3 -$394 (2Ap96) 

Coetis PMors PLC 64% uns Ln Stk 20024)7 

- CBS 4 

Coats vivesa PLC 43% ton Pit £1 -67 
(ZAp9G) 

CommraoW IMon PLC 33% ton Red Prf 
Cl - 63 (29k%96) 

Commrataal Union PLC 64% Cum bid Prf 
Cl -104 4 

Commer c i a l Union F*LC 64% Cum Ind Prf 
£1 - 1114 4 42 

Go-Operanro Bra* PLC 935% Non-Cura tod 
FMC1 - 110 

Codraon Group PLC 43% Ptd Ord sop - 
334 flAfttq 

Cooper (Frederick) PLC 63p (Net) Cnv Red 
Cum Ptg FM lop - 07 
Confienl PLC ADR (3:1) - SS4 
todant PLC 6% Cnv Uns Ln S* 2015 - 
£82 

Courtaulds PLC 6% ton Rod 2nd Prf £1 - 
66I29NH6) 

Cowtaufda PLC 74% Uns Ln Stk 2000(05 - 
£94 (2GMriK) 

Coverary Bu*i>g Society 124% Penn Inter- 
est Soaring 8hs dOOO - £1244 $44 
Craig S Rose PLC 5% ton Prf Stk £1 -54 
(29M46) 

Daly Mai S Genoraf Trust PLC Ord 50p - 
£15 

Dragety PLC 435% Cum Prf £1 - 72 CApSfll 
Debentnms PLC 74% Una Ln SOt 2002/07 - 
£80 

Oebemsma PLC 74% Uns Ln Stk 2002/07 - 
£94 (2Ap96) 

Delta PLC 4.2% ton 1 st Prf £1 - 65 IIApOS) 
Deto PLC 3. 15% ton 2 nd Prt £1 4S 
(IA 066 ) 

Dencora PLC 635% Cum Cnv Red FM £1 - 
02 A(2Ap06) 

Devw*st*LAJPLC 104% Deb Stk 2017 - 
£112fl<29Mr96| 

Dowhual PLC Ord lOp - 95 PAp96) 

Dbons Group PLC ADR prl) - *214 
Dover GOTO Com S* *1 - $454 
Bdoe PLC Ord 10p - 725 6 7 8 45 5 
0 Oro MrungftExpEoraJon Co F>LC CM lOp - 
680 700 (1Ap96) 

Emees FLC 6-250Neq Cnv Cum Red FM So 
-74 

Enterprise CM FLC 11 4% Uns Ln SO. 2016 • 
£1164 (29NW6) 

BIcssorifL-MjnairaonalrilabalageQCM SK25 
Ser-B* ffleg) - SK19309453 12736 324 
37 4 4 3 9 3 3 .08 .13 2 4 41 4 4 
3*815 .0 37 37 3 305 32 35 4 4 

.190235 -37 4 4 .9 5 5 4 4 6J 675 

.74 6 4 7 

Euro Ckviey S.CXA Shs FRS (Depo eri ot y 
Reoe^lB) - 178 8 9 62 4 5 
Euro Disney SXA Shs FRS (Br) - FR1336 .7 
.7 .73 4 3 35 

Euoturaiei PLCCurotumei SA urats 
(Skovsm toatrtoed) - FFM.61 32 325 
328056 3* .87 

Exploration Co FLC CM Stk 5p - 3574 
FBO HokSngs PLC CM «050 - IC1.96 
(2AP96) 

Foieon Holdvigs PLC CM 5p - 118 (!Ap96) 
First National Biaamg sotaeiy 11 4% Pram 
lot Beemg She C10000 - £115$ 4$ 

Fisons PLC 54% Uns Ln Stk 2004/09 - 
C764C1AP86) 

Rare Gram) FLC Wb b sub tor CM - 1IM 5 
Flare Group PLC 10 % to" Prf £1 - 100 
Fttkes Ooup PLC Ord 5p - 57 
Fartnran S Mason FLC CM Stk £1 • £106 
115(1A*fi« 

FnerxSy Hoteh PLC 7% Cnv ton Red Prf £1 
98 

GN Great Morale Ld 9» CK100 - DK44Z36 
43325(29Mr96) 

G.T. Chtto Growth Fund Ld CM S031 - $39 
General Accident PLC 74% ton krd Prt £1 
-96 

Ganoral Accstant PIC 84% Cum Ind Prf £1 

- 1124 4 34 

General Beetle Co PLOADR (1:11 - £3-73 $ 
5.78 

GibOB & Dandy PLC CM lOp • 91 PAp96I 
Gold Fields Coal Id FOiO • 252 (29Mr90 
Goodheod Group FLC 7% Cnv ton Red Prf 
£1 -734$ 

Gtamptan FSdgs PLC 7% Cum Prf £1 -65 
IIAfkW 

Grand Metr opu t tei PLC 5% ton Prf £1 - 56 
Grand Metropolitan PLC 64% Cum FM £1 - 
69 

Great Portland Estates PLC 93% 1st Mtg 
O0O Stk 2018 - Cl 03 (29Mr9« 

Own* Grot*> PLC B% ton Prf £1 - 96 
Greornas Group PLC 1 14% Deb Stic 2014 - 
£122 nApae:. 

Greerate Group PLC 8% fcrd Uns Ln Stk - 
£65 

Greenate Group PLC 94% Ind Uns Ln Stk - 
£97 

GreoneBs Gioro PLC 7% Cnv Subord Bds 
2003 Oleg) - C1JR4 4 4 4 .93 S 4 
GUtmess PLC ADR (5:D - S354 6.15 
Gummoa FSght ClcOal Strategy Fd F>tg Red 
Prf S03KStwtng Money Fund) - £10.14 
(1A096) 

HSBC Mdgs PLC CM SH10 (Hong Kong 
Recti - £93825 SH153S750Z 256469 
392763 -3731*3 117.71 6.1923 A9S25 4 


HSBC Mdgs PLC 1139% Subord Bds 2002 
(Ftagi - £113 4 44 

HSBC Hidgs FLC n.69% Sutnra Bds 2002 
(BrCVar)-£ll44C2Ao93 
HaMa* BuiUng Society 84% Pram M Baar- 
mg ShsESOOOO - E3I3$ 

Ranter Suuong Sedray 12% Pram M Bear- 
ing Shs Cl (Reg £500001 - £1234$ 

Fterdys 8 Hansm PLC Ord 5p - 320 2 7 
Hasbro Inc Sis of Cbm Stk $030 - $384$ 
Hasomere Estates FLC 104 % 1 st Mtg Dab 
SIk 2016 - 00811 <29Mi96) 

Hracraas toe Shs of Com Stk of NPV - $ 81 4 
Wtadewn Hda plc adfm- 1 ) - *114 
ewi 

Hraig Kong Land Fangs LO CM $0.10 (Jersey 
Rogj - £ 1 A 8 

Hoang Finance Cdiporaian Ld S%% Deb 
Stk 2025 ■ £964 4 

Rousing Fnrarce Coroaratun Ld 11 4% Deb 
5tt 2018 - £11423 (1Ap96) 

IS Hmatoyen Knd NV Ctd FliLOl - 5144 

38 4 4 4 

Icefand Ooup PLC Cnv ton Red Prf20p - 
115 4 7 36 

■rerrartoMon® Ld 64% cum Prt Stk £i - 
574 llApBS 

Wngwrath Mrarie fSaftake) Ld 7% Non-ton 
Prf 5Qo - 314 {lApegj 

todusnU Corerel Services Grp fLCOrd lOp - 
105 4 7 

Irish LEa FLC Ord KD.10 ■ $437 p 261 4 4 
245 


Jafmsrai Gnxsi Owners PLC 73p (Net) Cnv 
Cum Red Prf lOp - 1*3 
Johnson Onro Oeraiere FLC 63% (Net) 
Cum Prf - 86 |1Ap96) 

JWV9 Ftotel Grot*! FLC CM K02S - 24 p 
225 30 

Kraekng Motra Gram PLC 335% (Fmfy 
64%) ton Prf £1 - 86 p9Mt9fi) 

Kervsng ftAtar Grom PLC 43% (Ffrty 7%) 
ton Prf £1 - 74 (2Ap96) 

KJngSsnra PLC ADR 0:1} ■ *17 (2Ap96) 
Kraae-Eiaope Frad Id 5FSCDR to Bri S0.10 
(Cpn 6) - £4125 

Kveraner ASA A 9is NK1230 - UC23723 S 
635 

Kynocfl Grtxp FLC 74% Red ton Prf £1 - 

93(1AP98) 

Ladraolue Graro PLG ADR n:il - 5334$ 
Lamont HBgs PLC 6% Cum Prf 50o - 25 
(ZAP96) 

Lamont Htogs PLC 10% 3rd ton PH Cl - 
113 (1Ap96) 

land Seasides PLC 9% IS Mlg Deo 31k 96/ 


2001 - £100 V 

1 104“ 


LASMO PLC 104% Deb Stk 2009 - £1104$ 

Labowa Platinum Mates Ld Ord FV-01 - 45 

i2Apg« 


Leeds & Hotoocfc Bratoteg Society 134% 
- - - - 1- £1374 8 


FMrm tot Beartog Shs £1000 
LenlaUohnyanrarahip FLC 5% ton Prf Stk 
£1 - 5* (2Ap96) 

Union international Group FLC ADR (5:1 J - 

3837 tlAfflffl 

Lmho FLC ADR (1:1) - 5323 
Lookers FLC S% Cnv Cun Rad FM El - 94 
EA096) 

Lowet n obratKl PLC 64% i% Cun FM £1 - 
4611AP66) 

MEPC PLC 335% ton FM Stk £1 - 52 
MSD FLC 94% 19 Mtg Deb Stk 97/2002 - 

£394 

UEPC PLC 104% 19 Mtg D9J Stir 2024 - 
C115fi p9Mi9ffl 

»C FLC 12 % 1 st Mig Deb Stk 2017 - 
£12/4 (tAoea 

MH>C PLC 8 % uno Ln S* 2000/05 - 

£374$ 

Macdan-Qerava PLC 64% Cnv Une Ln 
Stk 2005 -E501 P9Mrt6} 

McCarthy A Stone PLC 8.75% ton Red FM 
2003 £1 • 89 90 

McCarthy S Stone PLC 7% Cnv Une Ln Stk 
99/04 - £70 1 p9Mi96) 

McMiden & Sans Ld 104% ton Prf £1 - 
126 flApfifll 

Malacca Fuid (Cayman) Ld Pig She $031 - 
$184 (1Afj96) • 

MonsIWd Brearwv FLC 114% Deb 81k 2010 
- Cl 19j; 09Mi96l 

Mams 8 Spencra PLC ADR ( 6:11 - $3935 
Mariey PLC 11 %% Oc Srk 2006 - Cl 1 9(1 
(29M96) 

Marches PLC 10% ton Prf £1 - 103 
[!ApM 

Mrashafta FLC 11 4% Dab Stk 2014 - £ 112 }J 
C29M.96) 

Marston.Tho<npson & Evrasbeo PLC 104% 
Deb Stk 2012 - Cl > 0 i <29Mr«6) 

Medove PLC AOR (4:i) - *144 .77 
MenztesfJahn) PLC 9% ton Prf £1 - 994$ 
Mersey Docks & Herbaur Co 64% Red Deb 
Stk 94^7 - £96 

Mdtand Bar* PLC 14% Subord Une Ln Stk 
2002/07 ■ £125 flApSQ 
Mere OTraral fLC 10 % 2nd Cum FM £1 - 

113 

Morgan StoOal FLC 5.625% tor ton Rad 
Prt n -espApea 

Morton Sundour Fabrics Ld 5% Cum is Prf 
£1 -52 

fCC Finance PLC 134% Oeb S» 2016 - 
£14237 K (29Mf96) 

NFC PLC /4% to Bds 2007URB4 - £684 
9 

National West minste r Bar* FLC 9% Non- 
ton Stig Prt Sere 'A' Cl - 1104 4 
Nation* Westmmsiw Bra* PLC li4% 
Subord Une Ln Sk 2004 - £1224 
Newcastle Butting Society 124% Perm 
Interea Bearing Ste £1000 - £1334 

pAp 0 ® 


Newer Group Ld 33% tow Prf £1 -475*4 
7 5SKV96) 

Nows htrananonal ILC 8 % 2nd ton Prf Cl 

- 76B9M96) 

North East Water PLC S3SM Red D9) Stic 
2012 - £67 

foarthehart In wgpn e nts Ld R Q .10 - £035$ 
Northern Foods FLC 64% to Subord Bds 
2008 (Reg) - G85 

Nrattwm Foods PLC 64% toSubwd Bds 
2006 (Br £ Var) - E834 
Northern Rock Bt*Sng Soaray 124 % Perm 
Inf Bearing Sfs £1000 - £1354 4 64 
Orta FLC ora 1 0 p - «1 & 3 
P & O Properly Hcttr^p Ld 8 % Ura Ln Stk 
97/99 - £97 (iAo96) 

PSfT PLC 8 % ton PH £1 -93$ 

PadSc Gas a Becoic Co Shs of Com Stic $5 

- *23 

Panther Secuttes FLC Wts to ai) tor Ord - 
5(2Ap96) 

Psridrara Grom PLC Ord 25p - 175 (£Ap9 5) 
Paaooe's Gnw PLC 73% Cnv Cum Red Prf 
5o - 117 CApeffl 

Praereen Sachoras PLC 10 % to" FM £1 - 
124 

fteeraon PLC 13325% Utis Ln Stk 2007 - 

£139&C9»*96l 

PM PLC 10 % Cum Prf 50p - 56 


Peel Kfdra PLC 94% 19 Mtg Dab Stic 2011 
£1024 


- £1024 CAp96) 

PM HWgs FLC SJS% (NUjCnvCwnNan- 
Vtg Prt El - 121 

PgrtfBtAr S Ortantal Steam Nm Co 5% Cum 
Pta Stk - CE7 CAp66) 

Perkins Forxta PLC 8o?latJ ton to Red Prf 
100- 102 

Po Uu B a SA Ord Shs NPV (Br n Dencm 13 
6 10) - BP95 4 261350829 866836 91 
PLC 94% Cun FM £1 - 93 3 


Shura Grrap PLC Ort Ep - 4 

SMMrt Grara FLC 534% (NBQ to Cun Red 

Prf El - 64 (1 Afflq 
snotJHe<jr*jprtCOrasp-7 4 6 
Shopme FManea (UQ FLC 7.B75pO*0 ton 
Red FM 9ra 2009 - 70 

SitBar Grotra PLG 74% Um Ln Sfc 2003/06 
. £86 

ggntl Grow) PLC AOR &1) - *1 -IS 
Smon Engkwrakig FLC 94% D9> *8t 62/97 
- £39 EAp98| 

Sng^ore Para FUbcr EsMtte FLC CM 5p - 
170$ 

Stager 4 F%«*9idra Gmup FLC B5% Cnv 

Susan uns Ln sar 2000/14 - 024 (iAp96i 
£00 Gretp FLC 3.15% ton Prf £1 -37 
(TAp9S) 

SMpron BUUng Sodoty 124% Pram tat 
Basting Shs £1000 - £133 
S*ngsby(KC^LCart25p-22DP9tW96} 

SmOMtaa Dseehem PLC ADR (5:1) - 

$51.728274 PAfdQ 

SdSthWtae Deertnm FLCamBTnra ADR 
(5n> - C34J132 34.8155 34B883 * 634 4 
J4S22S 

South S M B u rd U era Water PLC 94% Fled 
Deb Stk 98/2000 - £1024 
Stag Grouo PLC 11% Cum FM Cl - 81 
(1ApM 

Standara Chwtared FLC 124% Subrad Ltafl 
Ln Stk20tQO7 - £116 {29M6^ 
fineKa Speekmrai PLC 94% Red Cum Prf 
El - 104 

THFC (Mexadl Ld &BS% Mn-LMcod Stk 

2020(88390%) - £11*4 {29FA9Q 


TS8 Grots PLC 104% Subord Ln Stic 2006 

-£ii2 4 r 


1 4 Genenl tavs PLC 9% to Ura 
Ln Srk 1989 - £674 (2Apfl6) 

■cicpriraid IpP) Co Ld Shs SQJ35 (Hong 
Kong Ftearaered) - SH3.77 
Portugal Fiaw Ld Ptg Red Prt S0D1 - 544$ 
r Ld Ord RDJES - 


Querais Moot Houses FLC 12% 1st Mg OBb 
Stk 2013 - £864 

Duel* toup PLC 10% cum Prf £1 - 104 5 
BApflB) 

RPH Ld 44 % Une Ln S* 2004A39 - £82$ 
RPH Ld 9% Uns Ln Stic 08^00* - Cl 01 4$ 
RTZ Corporaran PLC 3.325% ’A' Cun FM 
£1 - 544 (28Mr96) 

Raca Bectrarfcs PLC ADR 21) - $64 
(298*96) 

Fte* Organisation PLC ADR £1) - $1156 
Rsraomes PLC 3^5% Cum FM £1 - 51 
CApea 

Fteddtt a Cofnrai PLC 5% Cum FM£1 - 52 
(2Ap9 a 

Ftofc-FtoycB Power Engnaering FLC 3% 

Cura Red Prf £1 - 53 (1A09Q 
Ronson PLC Ond 5ra - 40 4 14 2 
Retrace FLC 94% ton Prt £1 - 102 0Ap96) 
Royal Insurance HoUngs FLC 74% to 
SuboTO Beta 2007 (BrC Var) -£12* (2Ap66) 
FLgby Group PLC 6% Uns Ln Stk 33/98 - 
£854 4 64 

RussolllAlracanoarl FLC 5.75% Cun to Fled 
Prf - 105 

Sainsburytft FLC ADR (J.T) - S22.7B {2SMr8Q 
SvabuyU) PIC 6% tad Uns Ln Stk - £88 
(2Ap96) 

Schol FLC 84% ton Red Prf 2001/05 £1 - 
97 

Scho* PLC 5»*% to Cum Red Prt 2008/11 
£1-84 

Schroder* PLC 64% Una Ln Stk 97/2002 - 

£1014 

Scottish Metropottan Property PLC 104% 

1st Mlg Dab SIk 2016 - £1074 
Soaraam DMOras PLC 124% Deb Stk 2012 
- £127fi 1291*86) 

Sms PLC 74% Uns Ln Stk 92/97 - £89 4 
See m cor Group plc 4.55% ton ftg FMEl 
-£330|1ApH) 

She! TrsnspoR&TradtagCo FLC Ord2Sp 
C&KCpn 1B6) - 872 (29Mr96) 


4 PAt*6) 

TT Grocra PLC 10-875% to ton Ftad Prt 
Shn CT 1887 - 381 

Tdpef Fund Urte (JDR to W - *73000 
(29Mr96) 

Takare PLC 11.8% let Mtg Oeb Stk 2014 - 
£109 pSMrflQ 

Tare a Lyle FLC 64%j4-55% pha tax raed- 

tftCUra Prt Cl ■ 70 *4 (2Ap(XQ 
Teaca PLC ADR (iri) - *4JB (2Ap9Q 
Teeco FLC 4% Una Deep Dtac Ln Stic 2006 - 
£684$ 

TM Prime F4nd Ld Ptg Rod Prf SOjm -*1S 
16 182625 1645 

nestle Hotels PLC 104% let Mtg Deb Stk 

2014- £112/*$ 

THORN EMI PLC ADR (1:1) - 626 (29MIS6) 
Taps Estates FLC 104% lot Mtg Deb Stir 
2011/16 - £10*4 {Z9Mr96) 

Tate Systems ILC Ord 5p - 25 
Town Centre Saeutties PLC 104% 1st Mtg 
Deo S» 2021 - £1084 9 (29MrBQ 
Trafalgar House PLC 7% Una DeD Stk £1 - 
6* (2ApB8) 

TraMgra House PLC 8% U» Ln Stk 9*/99 - 
£94 

TraMgra Horae PLC 94% uns Ln Stk 2000/ 
05 - £S1 

Trafalgar House FLC 104% Una Ln Stk 
2001/06 - £92 

Transatlantic Makings FLC B 6% Cnv Prt £1 

-89 

Transport Devstapmsra Group ILC 4.7% 
Cum Prt £1 - 874 (1Ap96) 

Transport Development Group ILC 84% 
Uni Ln Stic 8348- £99(29*96) 

Transport De v elopment Grou> FLC 94% 

Uns Ln Stk 95/2000 - £1004 (1Ap93) 
Urtgete PLC ADR (trl) - 58.6 
Unigam FLC 64% Uns Ln Stic 82A7 • £97 
fiApeej 

Unftevar PLC ADR («rf) - *7«B2$ 

Unisys Corp Corn Stii $0D1 - *54 & 2 
Vaut Group PLC 8^75% Oeb Stk 2015 - 
E106U 091*98) 

Vrax toam PLC 10.75% Deb SIk 2019 • 
£1144(Z9Mi9e) 

Veen Group PLC 1 14% Deb Stic 2010 - 
£121 A (29Mt96) 

Vickers FLC 5% tonfTex Free To SOp prf 
SfcCI -65PAP06) 

Vodafone Groui FLC ADR(10:1) - 83628 J 
wav Grocra FLC 104% Cum Red FM 99/ 
2002 £1 - 88 (ZApeej 


FT-SE Actuaries Share InGices - Quarterly Valuation 



Market cap. as 

% of AJt- 

Market cap “as 

% of Aft- 

Marital cap. as 

% of A»- 


at 29/03/96 (Em) 

Share tadax 

at 28/12/95 (tin) 

Share Mb 

at 29/09/85 (Em) 

Share index 

FT-SE 100 T 

624182.76 

71.77 

3218mm 

7221 

58282896 

71.48 

FT-SE EAd 2S0 t 

177891.60 

20.45 

167300-00 

1989 

170684.77 

2092 

FT-SE kHd 250 ax inv Trusts t 

160729.58 

18A8 

15084242 

17.78 

153100.40 

1279 

FT-SE-A 350 t 

802074J8 

9222 

78904428 

9280 

753451.75 

92AG 

FT-SE-A 350 Ffigfror YMd f 

38628535 

44.41 

406299.91 

4784 

»rw?vi 

4264 

FT-SE-A 350 Lowor YMd t 

41578301 

47.80 

382744J7 

45.08 

37309928 

45.78 

FT-SE SmaKCap t 

67700.10 

7.78 

60320.95 

7.10 

6197086 

790 

FT-SE SrnaBCoe sot tmr Trusts T 

S705482 

6.56 

50257.03 

582 

51847.70 

236 

FT-SE-A ALL-SHARE t 

869774A8 

100.00 

849367.75 

100.00 

61 5422 13 

10080 

10 kB4BtAL EXTRACTION 

81862.76 

241 

77757.59 

9.15 

7021881 

261 

12 Extrectfvs Industries 

12307JJ3 

1At 

1217DJ3 

1.43 

12151.23 

1.49 

15 09. kilobaud 

6290024 

723 

6013031 

7.08 

53004.12 

250 

16 01 Exptarattor A Prod 

6655.49 

0.77 

5456.59 

084 

506216 

092 

20 GBI INDUSTRIALS 

163969.00 

18.65 

153545.17 

1808 

15341188 

1891 

21 Btildtag A Consmictkta 

7307 A 1 

0.84 

656246 

0.77 

5757.65 

271 

22 Budding Malta & Marchs 

20568.49 

Z2B 

21057.13 

ZM 

19851-26 

2.43 

23 Cherrncata 

19695.68 

229 

1806286 

213 

18455.86 

• 296 

24 Diversified tadustriata 

38067.70 

4.15 

35706.48 

422 

35334.42 

483 

25 Sscfrortc A Beet EqUp 

2070039 

2-38 

1880923 

221 

1747881 

2.14 

26 Engtaerang 

3821287 

4.16 

3151218 

271 

32187.75 

395 

27 Engineering. Vehkties 

7909.77 

0S1 

7B3255 

282 

8311.46 

182 

28 Paper. Pckg & Printtag 

11332.65 

120 

10117A2 

1.19 

11728.96 

1<44 

29 Textiles A Apparel 

3994.03 

046 

379286 

0.45 

4307.40 

253 

30 CONSUMER GOODS 

142438.77 

1038 

16660203 

1200 

15684283 

1983 

32 Alcohoic Beverages 

24845.78 

226 

2640268 

2T1 

27068.78 

382 

33 Food Producers 

2904926 

3^4 

2® 15.05 

247 

26755.13 

393 

34 Household Goods 

4374/48 

050 

423580 

080 

402180 

249 

36 HeaBh Care 

6029.66 

0.69 

549275 

085 

575213 

271 

37 PharrnacmAfcete 

63163.39 

727 

6581581 

7.75 

58951.16 

782 

38 Tobacco 

14974.00 

1.72 

17535.75 

206 

16320.06 

2.00 

40 SOW1CES 

206128.31 

23.70 

174055.10 

20-49 

167812.75 

2259 

41 Dfatributore 

810290 

0-33 

730347 

086 

800348 

096 

42 Latere & Hotata 

1701994 

1-96 

2474216 

291 

2296280 

2.02 

43 Media 

53650.50 

6.17 

4011687 

4.72 

3777883 

4.63 

44 Ffetaflras. Food 

22665.01 

2.61 

24232.56 

288 

2537890 

111 

45 FteiaJraa. General 

46003.09 

552 

4661T.70 

5,49 

4304081 

580 

47 Breweries. Pubs & Rest 

20561.73 

236 

17506^9 

2.06 

1596485 

196 

48 Support Ssrvfcos 

1557B.43 

1.79 

12219.07 

1.44 

1171880 

1.44 

49 Trrosport 

20547.81 

23B 

18164.55 

214 

1828268 

284 

60 UTILmES 

96995J4 

11.15 

9823184 

11.57 

10237182 

1295 

62 Bectricfty 

25645.07 

2ns 

2820527 

232 

2988270 

3.57 

61 Gob Dfetrtautiort 

1047809 

1^0 

1155482 

1.38 

1206249 

1.48 

G6 Telecommunications 

46051.50 

5 JO 

43041.49 

5.07 

4648883 

2® 

68 Water 

1481986 

1.70 

15431.06 

182 

1392780 

1.71 

69 NOH-FWANCIALS 

69141218 

79.49 

670094.73 

7688 

65065797 

79.79 

70 FVfANCIALS 

146350 43 

16.83 

14888584 

1783 

13510588 

1697 

71 Banks, Reed 

8519384 

e.«) 

8612007 

10-37 

7762392 

993 

72 Bonks. Meroftant 

3636£4 

0.42 

387231 

0.40 

3855.7B 

047 

73 insurance 

17345.47 

1.99 

1824427 

215 

1665896 

284 

74 Life Assraanca 

14948.65 

1.72 

1451983 

1.71 

1400B91 

1.72 

77 Other Financial 

11007.95 

1-27 

1019882 

1-20 

900990 

1.10 

79 Property 

14218.68 

1.63 

13929.74 

184 

1394230 

1.71 

60 INVESTMENT TRUSTS 

32011.85 

268 

30387.18 

258 

2968228 

394 

88 FT-SE-A ALL-SHARE 

86S774A6 

100.00 

849367.75 

10000 

615422.13 

10080 

FT-SE-A Ftod(0ng 

1685421 

_ 

13210.72 

_ 

1489599 

_ 

FT-SE-A Flod(£ng ox Inv Trusts 

13557.80 

- 

1283803 

- 

1231212 

- 


1 Ftguws n»ndsd dra ta sS0M pndng I 


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FINANCIAL TIMES 

Financial Publishing 


wagon taduatral m ^ 

pro Prf lap - 122 

WfdkrafThomra) FLC Qd »- £p I***® 
Wjrtug (S-O) Gtaxro PLC , 4 % ton Prf £1 
_ 

Watmoughsp-Hga) PLC 84% &on Rad Pit 
2008 Cl - TC 8 

warektiave Propraty Corp R-C 05% 1 * Mfg 
DaDStic 2015- £101$ 
womand Gram PLC 124% Dsb S«% M® - 
£12*4$ 

HMMd PU3 a% art Cum Prt Stii ci -63 
CA09Q 

yweSrasd FLC 7% 3rd Cura Prl Stk Cl - 72 

wmtnrai PLC 74% Uns Ln Stic 95.V9 - G66 

9 

W htt fd PLC 74% Ura Ln Stic ftMOQ - 
£9B(29hM6) 

WMtbrsad PLfi 9% Uns Ln SIk S7/2DD1 - 
£1024$ 

Wktaty PLC 7% ton Prf Cl - 61 <29Mr9ffl 
waters Mdgs FLC t 04% Cum Prf B1 1 - 11 ' 
WBta toroon Ooup FLC ADR (5:1) - *124 
12.85 

Wkwanrsrraw Nigrf Ld Onf R025 - 12 

(29MT9Q 

Wyovele Gonfsn Canoes ILC 8J% (Net) tor 
ton Rad Prf £1 - 196 0Ap96) 
xsrac Caro Com Stii $1 - *129.483333 
York Waterworks FLC M 10p - 305 (1 Ao9® 


York Watrawraka PLC Non- Vtg ’A* Ord lOp 

3094 

Yorfte*raTyn* Tara TV Hldgs PLC wb » 
sub far Ord - 625 


Investment Trusts 


An^o A Ovsraoas Trust ILC 44% tow FM 
Sft - £47 (1Ap06) 

Anglo A Ovrasoaa Trrat FLC 8.5% Dra Stk 
2020 - £85 (lAp96) 

BZW Endowment Fund Ld Rsdeemabie Od 
ip- 132^344646 
Bates Gtfford Stin Mppon PLC Warrants n 
sub lor CM -79$ 

Botes GHTOM SHn Mppon FLC Wsrerea to 
sub lor Ora 2005 - 45 6 
Barton hwsemant Dust PLC 194K Deo 
SIk 2016 - CM3 A {288*66) 

Boring Tiftataa hi yo ram snt Trrat PLC94% 
Dra Stii 2012 - £100* C29**96) 
Boransmsad tawstments Tiust PLC Wb lo 
ara for Ora - 26 

British Asstts Truss FLC 44% Prf Stiqton) - 
£47 (2Ap88) 

British Aaarts Trust PLC EqUttes tacktx ULS 
2005 lOp- 162(1 Ap96) 

Brtara tavooDnent Trust PLC 11.125% 
Secured Dra Stii 2012 - Cl 18 (298*96) 
totibi Goortag Trust PLC Old 25p • 570$ 
EtSnbragh taves t me ra Dust PLC 114% Dsb 
Stic 2014 >£1244$ 

Errttra A Scottish tavestcre FLC *B’ 2Sp - 
ISO 

European Aeseta Trust NV FL1 (BftfCpn 17) - 
NG7.7 (2SM96) 

Ftasbuy Smdra Co's Trust PLC Zero to Prf 
2Sp - 217 4 8»i 

Fleming Ctewrhouseftra Trust PLC 11% Deb 
Stk 2006 - £115* {Z9MT90) 

Ffemtag M u ca iMe Inv Trial PLC 3£% ton 
PrfStkCT - 52(2Ap96) 

Gartmoro Brtdsn Inc A Grill Tst PLCZera Divi- 
dend Prf 10p - 131 4 
Gratmora Shared Equity Trust PLC Gesrad 
Ord me lOp - 75 4 A 8 4 
Geraad Inc tavosunsra Trust FLC *C* Od £i 
-91 

Govaa Strategic inv Trrat ILC 84% Deb Stic 
2017 - £1004 4 p9Mr90) 

HTR Jrasnese SmsSra Core Trust PLCOTO 
2Sp - B>4 4 100 100 4 4 A5 4 4 1 4 
2 

Katspir tavsBtmwitt FLC Ord £1 - 600 60 70 
70 700 

INVESCO Enrtdh A taO.Ttirat FLC 6.875% 
ton Prf £1 ■ 107% (ZAP96) 

JF n adgstatg Japan Ld Wonsris to sub tar 
Old -31 


LABird S.«ci irvmlm.tai iror- 
pn 0 Ip iSraa) AcWki Fww ■ - 

Ujara Srisct fcwrrfriuvu T.-jra 

mO.lpUXWUkiAESrinF.-i vid 

(79Mv9G] 

LMfl Srsed tawsrm^rofti^'V'^ 
FM O.lp U K tat>« Fran - 1 1 1 ,l 
{TOMriW 

Lnara Seket irw*imrrt 

Pd 0. ip jap-mnwi Freni - uii- 
(29W961 

La^vrd Sctecf Ji 

Prt O.lp Europe m*» Fund 
CPMrUGi 

Lpndon i St UP*rancr WM-rirmiU PI lCW 

Sp-ltiS 

Lo*tand ftwraumort Co PLC M 4 ^ P*** f,,k 
jgiO ■ Kii6jir l2PMrf*»> 

MratahwoW-MriTribiPiC n%Den3ti. 

2012 - C1164 (tApW 
^j^QfOnVjLotinArrvifCJj ^ T.n PlCWta in 
9Ub Ira OTO - 234 4 
Nm Grammy Srftjntes Trod L J LVl 
114 i?Af»0 

New irtroqmonra* Tnjsai993) PLC 
Dob Stir 2WU-C122$ 

Nm Throgmorton Tresmara PLC C.-ro Cm 
Deb Sri. 1999 - C84 (SAfflBl 

Paribas French mwatmenl Trust PlCSrar. 

•S' Wanwri-i to sub for oro t84 
Rlgra and mras inv Trust FLC 54% Cum 
Prf Cl - 75 P9MT961 

seraodra Kdftai Fund FLC to 50 01 tun • 
3124 (2AP981 

Sconsh Mortwoe A Trua FLC P 12% 
aewedkriD* Stk WM - £120 CWWbr 

Scotwn NJtionJ Trust PLC 6% Cura Prf £1 - 
644 f1Ap961 

Scottish Nationrt T/vsrt flc io% doo ftk 

2011 - C10T4 11AP961 

Secralkrs Trust of Scotiafld ILC *4% Cui- 
IM Stk • C46(1Ap961 

Snves Smstra Co e PLC lifts la Sue w Oro 
- 41 (1Ap96) 

TR C4y C* London Trust PLC 104% Deb St* 
2020 - £111 (29kW6) 

Throgmorton Irusl PLC 12 5‘16% Sft 
2010 -£124 7 iC»W8 
Upaown tavestmera Co PLC Ord »p - 645 
50CAP96I 

Wgtim Preovty taves t mra u Tst PLCWt. lo 
Sub for OTO - 15$ 

Wltfta tavestmera Co PLC 8% Deb Stk 90/99 

• £694 100 


Wttan bneatmera Co PLC 84% Dra Sft 
2016 - £97 64 

Wifur invsstmere Co FLC 64% E*di Bds 
2008(RegintPitac Cl 000) - C1104 1 2 


USM Appendix 


McBond A Scottish Resources PLC Ctd top - 
44 p6Mr96) 


Sterling Purttemg Group FLC 6% to ton 
Fled Prf 2000 Cl - 554 60 


Alternative Inve s tment Market 


Primorv Health Prop 1014 P9J) 
Sflkbalm 1 114) 



Pwivi fting essential information and 
objective analysis for the global 
financial industry 

With the increasing complexities and 
competition within the insurance market it is 
more crucial than ever before that you stay 
aware of the core developments shaping the 
global insurance industry. 

Benefit from the unmatched analysis of key 
industry events within the following reports. 


For further info rmafi on on any of these tales, please lick the 
relevant boxes: 


The Top 20 UK Insurance Companies 
The 1bp 20 European Insurance Companies 
The Top 20 Global Insurance Companies 
A Strategic Analysis of UK Insurance Markets 
Captive Insurance 
Direct Insurance in Europe 
European Healthcare Insurance 
European Life Insurance 
The European Motor Insurance Market 
■HieGennafl Insurance Industry 
The Global Insurance Market 
Insurant* in the EU and Switzerland 
Insurance in Asia 

Insurance Opportunities in the UK Personal Debt Market 

The Ma rtaiq g and Distribution of European Insurance 

New Opportunities in the Latin American liwuraiire Market 

The Fntme of Lloyd’s and (he London Market 

The US Non-Life Insurance Market 

Accoonting Harmonisation in Europe 1995 

German Accounting Explained 

Inte rnational Gnide to Interpreting Company Afy-ormra 

European Tix Systems 

International Stock Exchange I. iaringa 

Buying and Selling Accountancy Services 

Strategic F inancial M m n y i irint 


Buying and Selling Legal Services 


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- 

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lV* : ^ 


FINANCIAL TIMES WEEKEND APRIL 6/APRJX 7/APRn. S 1996 



29 


LONDOIf STOCK EXCHANGE 




REPORT 


FT-SBJI AB-Stnro Index 


uy programme and takeover hints lift Footsie 


1,880 


Equity sham traded 

Timwer by vobro frnifcorrt. ExrtKSng: 
mba-RMcot buataass and owrattS Bimw 
1&00 


By Stove Thompson, 

UK Stock Market EcStor 

Thfi last trading session of the old 
tax year saw tbs UK equity market 
race higher on a mixture of 
renewed takeover rumours and a 
. firmer gilts market, but owed most 
of its support to a large buy pro- 
gramme. 

Wall Street’s latest burst of 
strength, which saw the Dow Jones 
Industrial Average advance to 
another all-time high on Wednesday 
night, added to the overall bullish 
mood in London. 

The programme trade, estimated 
A £350m, was said by marketmak- 
ers to have been executed by Gold- 


man Sachs, the US investment 
tank, and drove the equity market ■ 
sharply higher from the outset 

Dealers said they expect the Lon- 
don market to attract a finny of 
programme trade activity next 
week when the big investment insti- 
tutions begin to invest their sprang 
quarter new asset allocations and 
shift their existing portfolios. 

At the dose of a busy trading * 
session, the FT-SE 100 Index posted 
a 305 gain at 3,755.6, leaving it only - 
25.7 below its all-time closing peak 
and 36-6 beneath its record intra- 
day high. Over a week which has 
seen the stock market buzzing' with 
takeover rumours, the index has 
climbed 555 points or 15 per r*nt - 


The FT-SE Mid 250 index, which 
hra consistently outpaced the 100 
. index so for this year, continued its 
excellen t run, racing up a further 
25.4 in a peak 4*385.3, extending the 
rise on the week to 585 points or 15 
per cent 

Thursday continued the pattern 
of the week winch bad been marked 
by the daily appearance of takeover 
stories attached to Footsie stocks. 
They were concentrated mostly 
in the media and paper areas of 
the market, where Pearson, still 
stimulated by the recent merger of 
two Continental media groups, hit 
a near record close, and stocks 
such as Rexam and Carlton Comm- 
mucatians made rapid progr es s. 


. Long standing share buyback 
hopes ware behind the latest rise in 
Reuters, while BAT Industries 
shares continued their rehabilita- 
tion after the recent sell-off. Gran- 
ada made renewed progress, with 
investors hoping for more good 
news from the group when it deliv- 
ers its trading update on April 18 
The market’s burst of strength 
' came as a big surprise to some deal- 
ers, who had expected a quiet pre- 
Easter trading session. “It was 
partly the buy programme, but 
there was some genuine institu- 
tional "support,” commented one 
trader, who said the marketmakers 
had bear caught car the wrong toot 
Some observers remained cau- 


tious about the market however. In 
its April equity market analysis 
document the strategy team at Nat- 
West Securities said: ’The Footsie 
is bogged down in what is likely 
to prove the middle of a new trad- 
ing range of 3,500 to 3500, which 
could remain in place for the rest 
of the year." 

Turnover at 6pm on Thursday 
was 859m shares; customer trading 
on Wednesday was worth £LS8bn. 

Business on the London Stock 
Exchange was a record £685bn in 
February; the previous record 
monthly turnover, in January 1994 
and Just before global markets were 
hit by the sudden upward larch by 
US interest rates, was BSShn. 



1,780 • 

Fab Mor 

Apr 

— - 1 

Feb Mu 

Apr 

Source FT Extol 1906 



1996 


IntBces and ratios 



FT-SE IOO Index 


FT-SE Mid 250 

4385.3 

+35.4 

Closing index lor Apr 4 .. 

,...3755 A 

FT-SE-A 350 

1891.3 

+14.3 

Change over week 

+83.0 

FT-SE-A AH-Share 

1869.53 

+13.64 

Apr 3 ...» 

....3725.1 

FT-SE-A Afl-Shara yield 

3.76 

3.79 

Apr 2 - 

...5728^ 

FT Ordinary index 

2796.7 

+12.7 

Apr 1 

,...3718.4 

FT-SE-A Non Fins p/a 

1750 

17,16 

Mar 29 - 

...3699.7 

FT-SE 100 Fut Am 

3771.0 

+41.0 

High' 

...3759.9 

10 yr Gift yield 

8.03 

8.06 

Low* 

...3679.3 

Long gSt/eqirfty ytd ratio: 

222 

2J2l 

'Intra-day high and tow tar week 


TRADING VOLUME IN MAJOR STOCKS 


VbL Ctoatog Day* 
OOOa flea ctanoa 


stt __ 1.000 

ASOA Qnupt 3X000 107 

Abbay Mlonrtt U00 563 

AM Mar 1,700 46 

MUOmnn 31000 HQ 

AtfMtWMgr 646 594 

ArgoaT 1.300 flffl 

■SiffiUOontf 6*00 270% 

gUiHUn 1,200 205 

*2teoc. Qrt Feodor 1*00 403 

AMOe.Btt.Rom 385 2974 

0AAT 2*00 634 

BAT MbT 8*00 506 

BET 4*00 707 

race 1*00 347 

BOOT 1*00 675 

BPt MOO 577 

are mm 2*00 31 b 

BSkyBT 1*00 447 

BTr 6*00 377 

Him 4*00 322 

Banfcol ScoUundt 2*00 2S4 

BMkqnt 3*00 ra 

Boot 1 2,700 771 

BfatCMvt - 3*00 348 

Doctor 340 297 

Boots! 1.100 ESI 

BHtototo 76 798 

»2- Aaroapoout 1.700 808 

BritthAtnMyH 4*00 696 

BrtBsh Goal 6*00 2Wtt 

BrtMLand 1.100 389 

EHfah Stwtt 3*00 196 

Bmrf 1*00 222 

Bwmh CooMt 1*00 1078 

Bunonf 7,700 144 

CritotWroT 6*00 532 

CatiMY SefanppiBT 2*00 488 

Canton 3*00 214 

CrtonCUmr 3*00 480 

Chtt 151 371 

CortaViyala 2*00 3tB 

Goran. UNmit 1*00 589 

COttMBB 362 540 

Coofcwn* 4*00 310 

Onurtwidat 868 441 

Drtgtov 468 <10 

DoLAHw 487 725 

Dtorat 1*00 462 

EL 2*00 815 


*2 

*3 

46 

*4Y» 
4 a 
*5 

4*U 

+70 

+1% 


«6 

*11 

45* 

+a 

44 
. 42 
44 
. 45 

4* 

*2 

*6 


S 

*8 

*18 

*1 

*1 

*5 

*1 

-2 


48 

*5% 

♦11 

-1 

♦1 

+1 

43 

42 

+1M 



♦ 3 * 

48 
-1 

797 422* 
414 -!i 

♦ir 

-a 

♦3* 
♦i 


EngCMmCM 684 303 

EnurpriM Ott 2,100 448 

EoraumWLMa 063 BB 

FKI 830 181 

FflMign & CoL LT.t 1.700 1 69* 

Ol(L Acdoamt 638 620 

Oanara BocLt 7*00 378* 

Oaoo INMeomat 5*00 813 

GfyrnMd 181 361 

3*00 
4*00 

3*00 684 

023 681 

3*00 23SM 
1*00 BOB 
4*00 457* 43* 
1*00 1011 . 43 

2*00 360 

6*00 189* 

1*00 187 

2*00 424 

. 4*00 178 

1ST 748 

678 sea 

3*00 BOB 
-4*00 287 

219 m 
1*00 378 

62S 472 

4*00 MB 
1*00 8S3 

368 7tB 

'808 


*1 

*3 

■ 48 

-«4 

42 

48 

42 

• •48 
*s 



VOL 

Ctoatng 


lASMOt 




London Baa 

1.100 

no 


Inmtia 

MOO 



Lucas 

3JOO 



MB PC 

2*00 

atM 



WOO 

1B2W 


Mato X Spencwt 

LH» 

4S0B 


Itotwy tout Mai 

216 



safer*. Bed 

8*00 



Mortm fWmJ 

2300 

1GB 


tre 

1^00 



NttWan Bartct 

woo 

990 


ItotouaMMdt 

suno 

10DW 

+1M 

Motorist Powort 

7.106 

aez 


Mm 

STS 



Storthon Bbcl 




Mortham Food. 

1JB00 

180 


Pooraont 

4^00 

721 

+S0 

PS Of 

1«0 

•518 


WUnutont 

-LOOO 

206 


PoMrttort 

a/wi 

E49K 

+4M 

PnatonUWt 

1«B 

US 



MO 0 

40S 


PMCt 

288 

1003 

-1 

*rat 

2,100 

M8 


Fktoar 

022 

335 


rtart, Oiu-t 

9,mn 

Eli 


& COmafTf 

KB 

673 


(todtareJT 

2JOOO 

387 


Hooa hO-t 

1.000. 

1164 


Hsnotat 

2J3O0 

388H 

+6W 

Mauhmt 

0.100 

787 

+23H 

(UKHoycer 

3.700 

210 


%S Bk ScoOandt 

1J2O0 

aw 


howl Swawxait 

2X00 

90S 



aim 

377 


Srfrotaret 

208- 

1200 

+10 

ScutWi & Naw.t 

1*00 

847 

+3 

mhA- njOv-DOCL 

1.100 

3S6 

+4U 

ScoUWi ftomerf 

1,700 

356 

+3 

Soon 

SOS 

lQOVi 


Tinrlijaiirfc 

1*00 

138 


Gaatwaxl 

2 

534 


Onam TranlT 

S75 

mo 


Shol Tranapon 

&000 

802 

♦8 

ttobot 

2JMO 

871 

-3 

StouptiEsta 

1^00 

21S 

+3 

SnMtl (W.HJ 

ixeta 

464 

+12 

SmWiSNephawf 

1400 

183 

-1 

SnW Daeclumt 

3.700 

tao 

+3 

SmKI Boochm Ito-t 

1.70Q 

861 

-3 

&nttha Indsf 

BC8 

70a 

+1 

Qouttiom Bocrt 

1400 

675 

•a 

South Wotoa Bod. 

0 

650 


Souh Warn Wrtor 

lie 

682 

+2 

Seutnarn waaar 

236 

743 


Stanton) Chartdf 

2*00 

825 

*14 

Sttxatmia 

1000 

3*3 

♦i 

SutAWrat 

1,100 

366 

+5 

raw 

302 

106 


Tl &DttoT 

1.300 

508 

+6 

Tarmac 

2*00 

126 

+4» 


ass 

4S0 

+5 

Tartar Mtotxkour 

720 

154 

-1 

TaieWoot 

9JX» 

153 


Taacat 

TJOO 

282 

+8 

TTmnaa Wmorr 

829 

577 

+8 

Thorn EMt 

uoo 

1700 

-15 

TomtOnat 

6J00 

360 

+2 

HaMpar Houw 

550 

GO 

+» 

Umpne 

301 

«a 

. +1 

Untowrt 

mow 

1211 

+8 

(Mad Oocuto . 

2*00 

240 

+5 

Uhl Mma & Matfla 

3JMO 

68a 

.410 

UnKad iMttoar 

700 

5B5 

-4 

Vodakxtot 

.UOO. 

885 

-8 

WPP 

<000- 

20? 


MmtWto 

365 

329 

+1 


MOD . 

702. 

+* 

’WtaraaHtoaa.t 

010 

618 

+1 


EQUITY FUTURES AND OPTIONS TRADING 


increased activity towards the 
dose helped to boost volume 
In what had otherwise been an 
uneventful session In the 
derivatives, writes Joel Kibazo. 

In futures, the June contract 
on the FT-SE 100 ended at 
3*771, up 41 from Its previous 
dose, though below its fair 
value premium to cash of 
about 15 points. The 
pre-Easter session brought 
turnover of 9,630 lots. 

In traded options, volume 
reached 29,585 tats, against 
Wednesday's total of 33,696 


■ FT-SE 100 WPBC FUTURES (LfffE) £28 par ft* kitten point 


Opart Salt price Ctianga High 


Low 


Em. voi Oprtn int 


Jun 

373X0 3771* 

+41* 3776* 3736* 

nnan 

57884 

Sop 

3780* 

+41* 

0 

2430 

Dec 

3806* 

+41* 

0 

31 


■ FT-SE HD 2SD HKX FUTURES (LUTE) £10 parUI Max point 


Jun 


4400* 


+200 


3518 


■ FT-SE K» WPBC OPTION (UFTQ (*3755) CIO per tufl Index point 

3800 3850 3700 8780 3800 3850 3000 8850 

C P C 'P C PCPCPCPC P C P 
Apr W Z IK 4 n >2 10 » 24^2 14 S 1<2 21] 94 1 144 1 1M 

Stay 175 13% t3T 21 66% 33h Wi 53 43fe 78 23 110 fft 149 &i 19th 

■An IBBlj 30 UO 401] 1241* 55 Sft 74 67>a tefe (Bfe 1271a 3B12 163 1912 202 

M 210 45 10012 57 MB 7&l TIB 94*2 S3 119^ 70>2 146fc S3 17812 38 215% 

Dact 2IB B3>2 223 127 171^173^ 123^226^ 

Can 7*48 Mb 4348 

■ EURO STYLE FT-SE 100 WPBC OPTION QJFFQ £10 per ft* Indax point 


3575 


SO/5 3725 


3775 


MW 


3875 


Apr 190 1l2 M2 3>2 902 B 57 16 2Sfc 37^ 8 GO 11 2 1111a 1 I6OI2 

Itor 200*2 10 15812151211612 2512 82 40 S3 BT 31«2 89 17 124 8 155 

Jun 222^ 29 182 37^ M3 48 63 79 83 56 10012 38l 2 141 1 2 as 178 

Sap 221 70 nab 10a mfe 154 73^ 21413 

Dect 2751a 102 2Mh 137 in^lTSla 115 229 

Calr 779 Mi 304 * Underijtno MR Mia. Pnmtao tfeom n band so Mflraant priest, 
t Imo (MM nplry naMbt. 


FT-SE-A INDICES - LEADERS & LAGGARDS 


Pwcontago changn shoe Dacomtoor 29 1905 band on Thwsctay Apr! 4 1996 

MaAl +2021 Bnroertss; Me 6 that — +4LBB HotHiCW +1*5 

Utan& Hotels +17.48 fimtaduBM +6*3 FT-SE 100 +1*0 

Support SentCM +17.42 FT-SE-A 350 Lnw YbU . +6*0 Ettadta tadmMt +1*3 

Eagtaeadng, VbWciM +16*6 lAttnn +*50 FT-SE-A 350 Mew YMd -+0.1B 

01 B p la dw a FWd +15*3 FT-85-AFfeWfcg 4*A OtoaOed hdmtrtiti -0*7 

Engbwtag +11*0 FT-SSA HedBAop w ft* _4«.0 HMur — -0.10 

IVpar, PU® 8 MOng _ +11*4 ■ T«kOm a Appnl +5.18 HnmcUi -028 


Tonapnt. 

BMdnB & QantnKOon . 
Sbiviem. 


-+10.78 tamiraotTnats. 
.+8.70 IQ— Emctoa , 
.+9*5 mi 



land SKurHMf 

Ijporti g 

.1,500 

Lkw, * M * ,w '.+JSn£Lw8 


FT-SE MB 250 tt III +9.47 Mn^taaaatt . 

+824 UWn. 

FT-SE HU 250 .+S*S FP-5EAA8S8U. 


aecanO; * Baa BM> — +6*9 FT-SE-A 350 . 
FT-SE SnflCBp ■ Ht _—+8£5 BdfeglWi. 
FI-SE SmrtCap -++-i --.=: a+822 


« UasMy *■ UOpo- M 


thwtah 


-47*5 BkMcI« 

.+729 nmarn. Gneni . 


.+5.13 Btfa,ReH. 
.+4*0 fenia. 

.+4*6 Food PiDducns . 
.+4*o nm » OT. Fooa. 

.+3*9 CaawMf Geoifs 
.♦332 HoaMttU Goads 

.+321 Biota. Hatta* 
.+3.13 AW*ofc eetnagas 
. +2.70 GnOMAnttn 
-+2.15 TODKCO 



FT * SE Actuaries Share i -id ices 


'he UK Serie 


.-70.48 


1W8: 

Apr 4 dea* Aprs. 


Apr 2 ACT 1 


M». IW PC xaadL 

»M% cow (Mo yW 


Tcto 


M0 


mi 


MOD 


lM 


FT-SE 100 

FT-SE IN 250 

FT-SE M « 250 « hi IMN 

FT - SE-A 380 

FT - SE-A 350 WplMr YMd 
FT - SE-A 358 Lower VMM 
FT-SE SMBCap 
FT-SE Hw BCap n In TO *** 
FT - SE-A AU-SBARE 

■ FT-SE Actuaries 


3735* 

+08 

3725.T 

3728* 37104 

3200* 

3*5 

2.12 

14*1 5025 1525*7 

3781* 

2/2 

SUM 

12/3 

3781* 

212m 

BOB* 23/7/84 

43853 

+06 

43809 

4348.7 43209 

3482.4 

3*9 

1.71 

21*1 37*4 1747*0 

41853 

4/4 

40103 

11/1 

43803 

4/4/9$ 

1210* 2VU88 

4418* 

+0* 

4390.1 

43706 4354.1 

3482* 

050 

175 

20*8 8T.04 T 782*0 

44108 

4/4 

4BSU 

rvt 

44180 

■W 166 

mas zm/ta 

189U 

+08 

1877* 

1877* 1871.2 

1587*. 

082 

2*4 

18*5 2871 15M*6 

MM3 

4/4 

1UM 

11/1 

1891* 

4/4166 

8845 14/1/B8 

1837.1 

*08 

1823.1 

18202 18107 

1601* 

5*4 

1*0 

13*8 8033 1273*9 

18848 

15/2 

1783* 

'15/3 

18840 

15/2/96 

188* WI2W 

1953.1 

+08 

19303 

1937 J 1933.1 

1872* . 

2*8 

229 

2032 21*4 1344*3 

tWi) 

4/4 

tno2 

11/t 

1901 

4/4/96 

1080 14/12454 

2109*4 

+04 21(0.12 209077 209030 173014 

3*5 

1.78 

23*6 1035 171028 

210804 

4/4 

1054*6 

2/1 

2SOOB4 

4/4/96 

130378 31/I2/B2 

209172 

+04 208573 2081*0 2079*4 -1707*9 

028 

1*6 

20*2 1020 17X50 

200322 

4/4 

1031*3 

2/1 

3003.72 


130870 31/12/92 

1888*3. 

.♦07. 

1055.89 1855*0 1850*2 15B8.DS 

078 

2*2 

1043 Z7J24 157066 

1BB53 

4/4 

T7BUS 

11/1 

1889*3 

4/4/96 

81*2 130274 


All-Share 

DqT> 

A a 4 digs Apr 3 


Apr 2 Aprl . nn 


Dir. MM 
ym cow 


PIE Xd at TOW 

nflo . jW Mn 


mm 


Low 


mm 


Low 


« MaSAL ECTWCTIOWm 
12 Bdaett* tate«6s® 

15 09. HeonMS) 

IB 09 Euptoratoi & 


3405.75 +0* 3389*0 3373.49 3374*9 2724*9 3*3 174 

4268.72 +02 4258.B1 425373 4295,12 370876 *78 2» 

3443*2 +0* 3424*5 3405*8 340089 270620 4JK 1*4 

2499*3 +0.1 243084 2423*0 2423.91 1977*8 2-12 1.48 


18*2 82*0 1460*3 3466*1 27/3 314803 

14*3100*9 12S357 429KU VZ 40Z7*0 

19*2 62.45 1513.15 3*0.13 27/3 318009 

3978 29*8 1468*9 240BJB 4M 


2371 3406*1 2773796 900*8 19/2/88 

1171 439032 27711/95 1000*0 3l7t2ffl5 

1571 303.13 2773/96 802*8 202/86 

7/2 3844.10 BWQO 050*0 28/7/88 


20 BBI MMST1PAIJBQ77) 2104*0 +0* 2093*9 2097*0 

21 BtfUng 8 ConanicaooJ34) 1146.08- +« J140.14 1136*2 

22 BuUm IU 8 MMtte* 1872*1 +0.7 1859*4 1054.03 

23 ChOWoMCa 2516*0 +02 2511.15 2534,75 

M ramsOM Msouicn 1783*4 +05 1774*4 178048 

25 BMC A Baa Bp*08| 243028 +07 2413.42 2385*3 

S MWM71) 242424 +02 2418*1 2431.19 

zr StoH vmosi zatio +0* 2913.14 ^*4 

28 Pam, PBto & PFWflBpa) 2»»ra ^ 

29 TMtes 8 AppMipS) 1488.15 +0.4 1482J9 1487.11 


2082*2 

113221 

183014 

2541.16 

1788*8 

2380*8 

241751 

2954*9 

2787.43 

148895 


188424 

975.83 

1774.06 

2253*9 

1937*9 

199036 

1832.45 

224067 

284929 

156018 


4*0 1*5 
3*8 1*3 
4*3 1*3 
3*3 1*5 
5.70 1*0 
2*8 1.72 
3.18 343 
3*2 1*2 
088 1*7 
4.72 1*4 


16*8 22*9 
18*4 11J7 
16*9 8*2 
1033 0015 
14*7 38*4 
24.47 6*6 
1627 19*3 
17*9 2681 
17*5 9X97 
1017 7*7 


1142.78 ZM4JD 
05424 114BJ0B 
nus *93042 
118827 2BB&25 
996*8 188231 
125022 30021 
1482*8 2431.19 
1507*7 296084 
1182.42 Z7B838 
897*6 in048 


4/4 IBTtJa 
4/4 1029*1 
5/3 1789*8 
20/3 2344*2 
30/1 1737*2 
4/4 2197*2 
2/4 2181.18 
2/4 
4/4 
ton 


2H 2232*8 
11/1 21 2 5 *8 
1271 2383*2 
2/1 25B825 
20/2 2231*7 
3 n 213028 
2/1 2431.19 
11/1 2959*4 
271 3142*2 
2/1 


206* 

18/7/87 

24/1/94 

200/96 

2 m* 

A/4166 
2/4/96 
2/4/96 
11/7/95 
2/1 (¥87 


L10 14/1/86 
9/9/92 
96480 09/92 
079*0 14/1/88 
984*0 21/1/96 
9W*8 29/8/56 
882*8 10/11*7 
805*0 14/1/88 
B7138 14/1/86 
980*0 24/900 


>¥ comnra Eooosm 

’+'a2 AOMK BwenoasW 

33 Food Producers#® 

34 Homboid eoowa 

36 HMMi Cara#0) 

37 P MuM C wacto na 

38 TataB8(1t 


3481.79 

2742.68 

2496*0 

2584*8 

1923*3 

4942.89 

430321 


♦OS 3451.71 
+0.3 2733*7 
+05 9484.02 
+0 7 2565*5 
-01 1931*9 
+0* 4915*0 
+42 412055 


3464*3 3442*8 3023*2 
2762*4 2759*7 2730*5 
2482.76 249071 2443*7 
2569.56 2572*5 248X32 
1936.19 193X28 1090*5 
4922*2 4884.87 3804*5 
418038 404061 3785*3 


41 0ttnMDn(32) 

42 L*B»&ttafeM23) 

43 ttMapg 

44 MalBn. FonSL15) 

45 mwett. GaoeraJ(43) 

47 BAMrtn. PM* 8 R8BU241 

48 Slant S«n(c6M49) 

49 OngpoilCi) 


2448*8 
2780*4 
3095*1 
4172 74 
1328*8 
199027 
3043.81 
221S22 
2406.90 


+1J 2419.11 
+05 2748*7 
+1.5 3051*0 
*1.7 4103.48 
+1* 1901*0 
+1* 1967*0 
+04 3031*9 
+09 210X57 
+0* 2401.69 


2411*8 

2758*2 

3077.48 

4078*2 

1872.54 

1971*6 

3013*5 

2178*8 

20X40 


2402(5 
2735*5 
3027*5 
4041 JS 
1878*3 
1974J4 
2992*3 
2173*0 
2415.71 


4*1 . 1*4 -17*1 81*0 1285*4 371M0 
4*3 1.60 17*4 .57*4 99053 2962*7 

4.14 1*3 18*0 23*1 1117*0 2*82*8 

3*4 2.41 13*3 61*6 988*7 2728JV 

2.74 1*0 25*8 9LE9 1184*3 1*73*4 

*4T 1*5 1**7 8L77 1878*8 

5*1 OOP 10*8158.18 108090 

1947*3 2*7 2*8 21*1 24ffi 1267*7 2448*8 

2361*2 111 1*4 2072 27*8 1015*0 278X04 

2187*1 2*1 2.15 21*8139*2 168X19 308X91 

2875*7 2.14 1*4 3010 3X18 1507*2 4172*4 

188X32 3*0 2.40 1X71 3*5 1210*0 2110*4 

1633.81 3*3 2*2 18*4 13*7 1129*3 19BX27 

9WHM 125 206 18*2 15*3 US1M 304X81 

1491*9 221 2*2 2244 8*6 139X18 2215*2 

224X00 X81 1*1 84*1 23*1 9BX3B 247756 


31/1 
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24/1 M82JB 
3/1 20X30 
50 180457 
21/1.4799*9 
2/2 4040*1 


V4 371X99 31/1/96 
3/4 307*9 1115/92 
2/4 JBS7JH 24/1/96 
130 2994.14 18094 
11/1 2B47A0 28/907 
209 .508*0 31/1/98 
1/4 408X47 2/2/96 


BB75D 14/1/98 
967*0 W/V88 
94X10 14/108 
327 JO 21/1/86 
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96370 13006 
9/1/88 


4/4 

4/4 

2230*2 

2881*4 

Tl/1 

11/1 

2(4098 

3319*3 

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2/2/94 

944*0 

0U50 

23/1/88 

21/1/86 

4/4 

284552 

5/1 

3095*1 

4/4A0 

07840 

21/1/86 

4/4 

3478*7 

2/1 

417274 

4/4/96 

978*0 

9/U86 

16/1 

1884*0 

29/2 

22SOB4 

4/9/95 

91740 

21/1/86 

4/4 

188453 

11/1 

199827 

4/4/96 

870.10 

9/12/88 

4/4 

280843 

12/1 

3043*1 

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902*0 

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4/4 

1881*7 

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030*8 

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2913 

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+05 2550*7 
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+0.6 2164.1B 
+02 216X26 


2550*0 2547*0 
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£8 HM-fmtHOMSfSn 


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2260*0 

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X76 1*2 


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1571 291X06 W11/B5 
280 2378*0 1BTCM3 
29/1 2481*8 2B/12/93 
12H 2192*7 23/3/66 
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650 3/10/88 
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80X50 3A1W8 
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8X49 1 S/1 2/74 


70 nUPCUL5(Mm 

71 BM&. fleWWJ 

72 Caws. Itartttem 

73 tamnca{Z3) 

74 IBs Hawnmn 

77 0B«r FWodaW 

79 pmmWD 


284X27 

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255184 

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+0.6 1460.91 


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1X34 3U2 108X17 368X44 4/1 336323 15/3 381X79 4/Bffi 

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+0.1 1177*8 
+0.1 118036 


0*0 


117X12 1174*6 
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96073 


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31/12/B5 1412*0 waur lOH/62 100*0 

31/12/05 682*4 NorWQlg 

3V12/B5 68X94 All Other 



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contrKds. The FT-SE 100 
option saw 11,202 lots dealt, 
white the Euro FT-SE option 
had business of 1,096 
contracts. 

Among Individual stock 
options, Reuters, also busy in 
the cash market, led the way 
with a total of 2,529 lots. H 
was followed by Unilever at 
2,105 and Trafalgar House at 
1,875 tats. 

Other stock options that 
were active Included food 
retailer Asda Group, Marks and 
Spencer, British Gas and GEC. 


(APT} 


Stores up 
on Easter 
buying 

The long Easter holiday, 
coupled with the expectation 
that the bright sunshine will 
winkle shoppers out of their 
winter overcoats and into 
spring fashions, helped to perk 
up the non-food retailers. 

Analysts -«><* that the 
awaited upturn In retail sales 
was starting to happen, with 
several of the best performers, 
including Argos, Next, King- 
fisher and Goldsmiths, also 
basking in the afterglow of bet 
ter than expected final results. 

Argos, the catalogue retailer, 
rose 6 to 629p; Next, the fash- 
ion chain, 6 to 524p; and King- 
fisher 9 to 575p. Goldsmiths, 
the jeweller, added 9 at 282p. 

Their performance was help- 
ing to give the sector as a 
whole more appeal, said one 
leading analyst, with the 
maricBt nhaaing the underper- 
formers. 

An increase of 17 to 684p in 
Great Universal Stores, the 
retail and financial services 
group, was believed to be 
fuelled by rumours of a share 
buyback. 

In the drinks sector, both 
Grand Metropolitan and Guin- 
ness saw high turnover with 
4.4m and 4_8m traded respec- 
tively. Guinness put on 3'A at 
457y«p, while GrandMet eased 
half-penny to 414p. 

Media mania 

Consolidation was the buzz 
word in the media sector as the 
market latched on to a pointer 
given by this week’s big Euro- 
pean deal. 

Merger of the television 
interests of Luxembourg’s CLT 
with those of Bertelsmann, of 
Germany, to create Europe's 
biggest broadcaster prompted 
some closer focus on UK 
stocks. 

However, some marketmak- 
ers bad also been caught short 
by sharp rises earlier in the 
week and were busily trying to 
square positions ahead of the 
long Easter break. 

Pearson was once again the 
principal grist to the rumour 
mm The owner of the Finan- 
cial Times registered a near 
record close amid continued 


NEW 52 WEEK HIGHS 
AND LOWS 


NEWt«MS(1S0. 


RETAIL (1) ABO Amro, 1 
REST f9 Ban, PIsaEt+na, WKtmpoon (JD). 
lrmmrminiiiii & Dufey. dm &« ■ » nm*. 
BULNNQ 4 CHSTRN H Atom SyMm. 

O wner Homo, CM rte n erton 9 USpc Pi*. 
AnA, MoMpina (AL Plmimnen, BUM MATLS 
4 MCKTB n CAMAS. CWttn, Nnnn Traws 
Perfons. Unkwwi Cermc Mac. CHSUDQUS (l| 
AmMrfey. DBTRBVT0R8 PJ Bramnwr. FomaA. 
Hatton. Hartya, Mow tow n. Spncbto, 

Vt4» PWJj/L DWBRSnB) MDLS cq Mlaod 
ntaal. TT Ba« BCCntNC & SECT EOUP 
M A«M CBSq. PaatL twwm. BHHRNB 
M BM. VBSOJES (4 BSO HI. Laid. 
EXTRACTIVE MOS (3) FOOD PROOUCGR8 (Q 
CPL Aram 1AWS, ICALTH CAM flj 
ConfiHy Ho^toh. HBU8BKHO POOPS 68 
Btoon A B M Hi aa a . Danby. ■CUWAWCC 68 
Indapandu tnaet Nrtaen hbat. DIVESXIBir 
TRUSTS OB| MHTIBIT COMMMES 69 
BZWCBmmgdtoCntoGnaatw, 
LBBURE A HOTELS (?> O ooaa y 8 I l — to a. 
Oraneda, Canada T 1/2p Pirt. KvncK 
IWMm Untoft Onmb Mem House. 3«oy 
Hnaim A. UH: ASSURANCE (Q Unttd Fnandjr 
X MBXA (UB OS. EXPLORATION 4 PdOO W 
OTHER FUMNCUL n PAPBI . RAGNB 8 
PRHTG (9) BDMnm HL Brtttt Potahana Inds. 
DaipNn Pack MV. RPC. PHARMACEUTICALS 
(1) Hurtngdon InH, PROPERTY (5) BotanL 
CMMafeL Gonpoo, Duncon Orom FoEiaB N/V. 
RETAILERS, GENERAL 68 SUPPORT SEHYS 
(14 TRAIVPORT n to London, Tl£, ARI « 
COiaaiy OoreJtnc. Oobcaf Qan (BennuW- 
AMBOCANS (1J. 

NEW LOWS pq. 

GETS n CHEMSCALS (1) Anfier kidUUMaL 
MSTHBUTORS C8 Rocwon. WHahnw. 

aecnwc i ELBcr ship (i) Rawoid, 

EXTRACTIVE M» n Antoaan Gold. Brtfata. 
(mpotaPttkun. SneETMBir TRUSTS (9 
INVESTMENT COMPAIKS (Q MswWua FlML 
LBSURE A MOTHS (!) St tone'll Beocti HotoL. 
PROSaiTV (I) Crttlto bOL TEXTILES A 
APPARB. n qm OH. Helene. SHT. 
TRANSPORT (R Appawl DMrtaton. CanoN 
Trarapon Rantt. Emnunrt Unto. WATER (1) 
Yoih WaHnoorha, AM 00 Dmalak Man 4 
OumoM. SOUTH AFRICAH8 (t) Ene«w AMco. 

speculation of an approach. 

Analysts were cynical, 
although one trader pointed 
out that the day’s turnover of 
48m shares was at the very 
high end of daily averages for 
the stock. The shares reached 
723p and finished 20 up at 
721p, just 4 below the dosing 
peak achieved more than two 
years ago. 

Elsewhere, Carlton Commnr 
nications, the broadcaster, 
rode 16 higher at 48(g) on whis- 
pers that it could make some 
form of corporate move quite 
soon. United News & Media 
jumped an additional 18 to 684p 
following dearance earlier in 
the week of its merger with 
MAI, up 14 at 438p. Seed Inter- 
national climbed 20 to U64p. 


P&O drifts 

Favourable traffic figures 
from Eurotunnel boosted 
shares in the Rhannel t unne l 
operator but depressed P&O. 
the shipping, construction 
and property company. 


Data published on Thursday 
revealed first-quarter figures 
for Eurotunnel's Le Shuttle 
vehicle service up 117 per cent 
from the same period a year 
ago, while tourist figures for 
the month of March rose 31 per 
cent from February's total 

Shares in the Anglo/French 
group put on 3 at 66p. making 
the stock the best performer in 
the FT-SE Mid 250 index. P&O 
eased 4 to 516p on concerns of 
stiffer ferry competition on the 
Channel route. 

However, one analyst said: 
“This really will not hurt P&O 
that much as its ferry division 
will only contribute around 8 
per cent of operating profits 
this year." 

Renters rose 23V« to a new 
closing peak of 757p ahead of 
its first-quarter bailing state- 
ment and annual meeting on 

April 16 . The trading statement 
has been brought forward from 
April 26 and there is hope that 
the company might return 
some of its bulging cash pile to 
shareholders by way of a share 
buyback or special dividend. 

Hard hit tobacco and insur- 
ance conglomerate BAT Indus- 
tries bounced back 20 to 508p, 
on an earlier gain from Philip 
Morris and talk that the US 
group might buy back some of 
its own shares. 

Telecoms group Vodafone, 
which released very strong 
subscriber figures earlier in 
the week, slipped 3 to 255p on 
profit-taking. 

Lloyds TSB was heavily 
traded, with volume boosted by 
a block of 5m shares passing 
through the market at 3X7p. 
The stock finished 1 % firmer at 
3l6p on turnover of 10m. 

Paper and packaging group 
Rexam forged ahead 18 to 403p 
on the return of an old story 
that Alusuisse, the Swiss pack- 
aging, chemicals and alumin- 
ium group, is interested in 
making an offer. 

Coach group National 
Express, which this week won 
the franchise for the Gatwick 
Express railway service, 
receded li to 491p. There were 
worries that the company may 
not get clearance to run the 
Midland mainline rail service 
for which it has also hid. 

British Airways, which 
reported favourable traffic fig- 
ures earlier thin week, hard- 
ened 2 to 536p. 

There is talk of a big bid in 
the market next week and the 
regional electricity sector is 


■ CHIEF PRICE CHANGES 
THURSDAY 

London (Pence) 
fUsos 


BAT Inds 

508 

+ 

20 

Blacks Leisure 

112 

+ 

12 

Chrysalis 

464 

+ 

19 

Delta 

435 

+ 

16 

Famed Elect 

645 

+ 

15 

Goldsmiths 

262 

+ 

9 

Granada 

797 

+ 

22Vj 

Hamtxo Ire 

94 

♦ 

10 

Huntingdon Int 

95V= 

+ 

16 

Ideal Hardware 

545 

+ 

32 

Laird Group 

445 

+ 

17 

London Beet 

793 

+ 

20 

Martin Inti 

21 

+ 

3 

Nelson Hurst 

198 

+ 

11 

PizzaExpress 

344 

+ 

19 

Reuters 

757 

+ 

231.- 

Rexam 

403 

+ 

16 

Falls 

Bailey (Ben) 

27 

- 

2% 

Densltron 

47 

- 

5*4 

Helene 

7Vi 

_ 

2 

National Express 

491 

- 

11 

Superscape VR 

588 

- 

72 


one plausible area. Yorkshire 
Electricity was especially 
strong, with a rise of 15 to 
857p, as was London, which 
went up 20 to 793p. 

Harrisons & Crasfield hard- 
ened 3 to 157p following a 
recommendation from Credit 
Lyonnais Laing. Analysts at 
the broker believe the group to 
be “a market leader in core 
areas. This is a value based 
investment that will shift to 
one based upon growth." 

Granada, which announced 
the disposal of its Regal Hotels 
chain, was in favour ahead of a 
trading update next week. The 
shar es leapt 2214 to 797fc>. 

Engineering group Laird was 
supported by a positive note 
from NatWest Securities. The 
shares jumped 17 to 445p. mak- 
ing it one of the best perform- 
ers in the FT-SE Mid 25ft 

A squeeze in specialist engi- 
neering group Cortworth saw 
the shares gain 18 at 190p. 

Clothing manufacturer 
Helene tumbled more than 20 
per cent after critical comment 
in the specialist press. The 
shares dosed 2 down at 7*Ap. 

Avocet Mining began trading 
in the London market. The 
shares were placed at 240p and 
ended the day at 243p after low 
volume. 

PizzaExpress strengthened 
19 to 344p as a newspaper cited 
it as a possible bid target. 

MARKET REPORTERS! 

Peter John, Joel Kibazo, 

Lisa Wood. 



GALUAKD HOMES LIMITED TELEPHONE: 

0171 620 1500 FREEFONE 0800 54 56 58 
Internet http://vYww.propertyfinder.co.uk/couniyhalI/ 


THE ALL ENGLAND LAWN TENNIS 
GROUND pic (“Company”) 

£2.000 nominal debewnres 1 996/2000 Series 
(“Cemre Conn Debentures") 

Set oat below me (be prices and dales of (he three most recem tra n sactions 
ia th: Centre Com Debentures, as notified lo the Company. 

The amount of £19*25 b*s been paid up on the Centre Conn Debentures. 


£30*00 (25/01*56)-. £30.000 ( / (A35/96J: £30*00 (2*02/961 


TUa 

/HO 


■ qaanaiai 


p tf rttnd eatyoKl tat brtu tfpnmd totdvpwna 


■ 57 a/to ftaetotortw Ati ttafl ta NafWi* Hatha Cmreme Rumen Lmmtd 

yrti«uipt^rtrttaTVS>wu»w/Artvn4rtk»«]r£tokc4 

64** MM 


Les Echos 


FINANCIAL TIMES 




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to n wwr * tad at MR ie»m. ^ -Iv rnvli- n - tpcro —a nwa rl 1 vk 



1 OFEX li a Hading facility far 4 ibm dealnc tn iBquoKd companici. | 

Shncc nadedmOFEX dwild te coDaldant la^i r«4 imcnmaiu j 

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Chaap 



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m 


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1$ 


AnHsnGoU PLC 

18 


PnlUoa ItoktoE* PLC 

250 


Aram VHhjc PLC 

U 


Rj Kp Nb Croup PLC 

it 


Anenal PC 

87500 

+2sno 

ftof Ertapmc Grp 

1X4 


AmmlCaiE Ccnm 

40 


Propnei UK PLC 

S3 


Bartcer Seamim 

7 


Rangen PC 

M) 

+5 

Bamhini Brran PLC 

48 


ReliictsPLC 

IS 


Caaial Railway 

1IU 


StthaJioParokdiaPLC 

II) 


CuHiajy Mnmls PLC 

2 


Secured Pn^crt)' Dcvu 

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DhBmAC 

i» 


SSiqtond NtflOlr Lkl 

1IUI 


EaneW HakhnpiLJd 

22s 


Sjoic* SIHrt Cinr PIC 

53 


The FaiMB Putt CoaifMii)- 

us 


njiuuiw icuimogm 

128 


Gabnd TiunPLC 

ir 


TVnaxudi HoUaip] Lid 

65 


(hsuafle a/pptap 

67 


Ltoued Bnuvu Gip 

65 


Greonaf Hrtela 

ID 


Vkr-Odl Europe PLC * 

72 


Hydro Head ETBora 

-HU 


Visual U tl£ 

9 

*1 

IES Croup PLC* 

290 

+43 

Wjuiiuirt Gn«|i 

12 


lmh Man Od 

22 

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WttoN't Ld 

TJlU 


lua Group PLC* 

3 


WdKncHn Mki ft Prop 

U» 


L+byiauJi Group PLC 

.V 


Wddi Odd F1C 

.V 


Lion PuMiahaig PLC 

IIP 


Weawronti haul Group 

■» 


Mi/btirletFlC 



WonSehaiH PLC 

Ml 


Kadonal Paridui; Ceqi 

43$ 


Wymwaj A Qhs^d Aomen 455 


Nacaunr 

M 


Xdvcr Computer Group PLC it 


Plk»«a 12noooon4Apnl 1996 


• Other classes of ihaKava/bfafc. 1 

OPEX ■neptod^MuAdSliSKiUipU.hfiialmfatrlDjPieiiliaiUl. thbimni 

UMdea Stott Eurtnr atoBticr fliw aad H roeh tcpaaBd (M MuatOH ilk] Futoci Aatomy LdMtoL 

Pnnr»i|i«i«rfBntoadito»ii«JWtt»uliMr«i»MMby)piatoroiJit 




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ANixra 


Global Provider of 
Structured Networking Solutions 
Tel: 01 753 686884 


FINANCIAL TIMES 

Weekend April 6/April 7/April 8 1996 


Birds stranded in Belgium after closure of investment company 


UK stops ostrich farming scheme 


Singer & Friedlander 
Investment Funds 

0500 62 62 26 

IM Sewn. UUCOMX StHM* WWJKfcirvWWi 


THE LEX COLUMN 


Chasing the dragon 


By Clay Hams in London 

British ostrich farmers yesterday 
offered homes to thousands of 
birds stranded in Belgium after 
the UK government's closure of a 
controversial investment com- 
pany. 

Ostriches have become a chic 
alternative investment in recent 
years for people enticed by prom- 
ises of huge guaranteed returns 
and the hopes of a growing appe- 
tite for meat other than beef. 

The ostriches are owned by 
individual investors who paid the 
Ostrich Farming Corporation up 
to E17.7QQ (§27.000 j per bird to 
breed and sell them in Belgium. 

The Department of Trade and 
Industry this week appointed the 
Official Receiver as provisional 
liquidator of OFC. based in Mans- 
field. Nottinghamshire. OFC is 
believed to have taken in mil- 
lions of pounds in recent mouths. 


The DTI said the company had 
promised returns of more than 50 
per cent by guaranteeing a num- 
ber of offspring per ostrich and 
agreeing to buy back those 
chicks after a year for a pre- 
determined price. OFC arranged 

for the ostriches to be kept and 
bred on several Belgian farms. 

Britain has an estimated 10.000 
ostriches on 350 farms. Two of 


£500 per bird, even after a recent 
rise in interest as the result of 
BSE. or “mad cow disease". 

A number of people associated 
with OFC, including Mr Brian 
KetcheU. managing director, had 
been members of Alchemy, a pyr- 
amid investment scheme closed 
down by the DTI in 1994. Mr 
KetcheU was not available for 
comment. 


Minister seeks to limit Eli slaughter demand 


.Page 4 


the enterprises - Wye Valley 
Ostriches in Wales, and The 
Ostrich Centre in Swansea - said 
yesterday they would offer OFC 
investors rescue schemes for 
their birds. 

Ostriches' popularity as an 
investment has been based more 
on breeding profits than the 
value of leather and meat at 
slaughter, estimated at about 


Mr Alan Bloomfield of Sheffield 
described how OFC had flown 
him and other potential investors 
to Belgium in November to see a 
farm near Ghent He bought one 
young breeding female for £6,000 
and. later, a three-month -old 
chick for £1,400. Before it was 
closed, OFC was offering 
ostriches described as “super- 
breeders" for up to £17.700. 


Japan Tobacco faces first 
damages claim from smokers 


By Emiko Terazono in Tokyo 

The first lawsuit brought by 
smokers against Japan Tobacco, 
the state-owned company that 
dominates the country’s cigarette 
market, has been launched this 
week. 

The action by five Japanese - 
four smokers and one non- 
smoker - has created new con- 
cerns for JT and for the finance 
ministry, which had hoped to bol- 
ster state revenues by selling 
much of its SI per cent stake 
later this year. 

Until now, JT has had the 
advantage over overseas competi- 
tors of a relative lack of litigation 
from smokers. 

The current litigants are 
demanding a ban on production 
and Ylm ($9,350) each in compen- 
sation. The amount is small by 
the standards of JT. which made 
Y115.3bn in recurring profit last 
year from brands such as MDd 
Seven and Seven Stars and is the 
sole Japanese producer. But the 
case could prompt other legal 
challenges and comes when the 
company is under pressure on 
other fronts. 

New restrictions were imposed 


this mouth on sales of cigarettes 
through the country's vending 
machines, which can now oper- 
ate only from 11pm to Sam 
instead of a 24-hour service. Con- 
sumers can still buy tobacco at 
nil-night convenience stores. 

In contrast to the US. where 
tobacco companies face litigation 
from consumers and individual 
states, the case prepared by Mr 
Shizuo Ito - a lawyer based in 
central Japan - is the first in 
which smokers have sued JT. 

In the past 10 years, the coun- 
try's courts have rejected three 
suits by non-smokers against the 
company cl aimin g their health 
had been harmed by cigarettes. 

The four smokers, who smoke 
40 to 80 cigarettes a day. c laim 
they are addicted to nicotine and 
blame the company for not warn- 
ing consumers of the health haz- 
ards of smoking. Japanese ciga- 
rette packs carry only a small 
warning on the side which tells 
consumers to “be careful about 
smoking too much” and to watch 
their mann ers when smoking. 

The subdued message angers 
Mr Ito. “Even a child knows that 
smoking is bad for the body." he 
said, but acknowledged he was 


battling Japan’s most powerful 
bureaucracy, the finance minis- 
try. 

He noted that, while the minis , 
try of health and welfare has 
raised the dangers of smoking In 
various reports, it cannot fight 
the finance minis try, which con- 
trols the budgets of all govern- 
ment ministries. “The govern- 
ment should really be looking out 
for the health of the people,” he 
said. 

Apart from the law on vending 
machines, restrictions imposed 
on cigarette sales include an 
unofficial ban on cigarette adver- 
tising during the day to avoid 
attracting the attention of chil- 
dren. 

But even if the government has 
managed to limit consumer fears 
about the health hazards of ciga- 
rettes, it has not managed to 
dilute many investors' fears over 
JT shares. 

Tokyo's financial community 
remembers the stock market tur- 
moil caused by the listing of JT 
shares in 1994. The ministry was 
planning to sell a third of the 
company, but 40 per cent of the 
shares were left unsold, sending 
stock prices down sharply. 


Mr Bloomfield said OFC had 
guaranteed five chicks in each of 
the first two years, nine in the 
third year, and 12 in the fourth. 
When each was one year old. 
OFC guaranteed to buy it back 
for £500. 

Mr Bloomfield would receive 
an increasing number of chicks, 
up to 24 in the eighth year and 
each year afterwards, until his 
original bird was 25. OFC also 
guaranteed to buy these chicks 
when they were a year old, but 
only at “market price”. 

“There was no hard sell.” Mr 
Bloomfield said. OFC was open 
about the fact that ostriches did 
not qualify under the Investor 
Protection Scheme. He was 
encouraged by the fact that some 
investors were already receiving 
payments. 

Several UK farms also promise 
guaranteed returns. Wye Valley, 
however, does not 


Rise in US 
jobs signals 
firm growth 

Continued from Page l 


report. “This is probably the 
most important number of the 
second quarter, so you can’t miss 
this," said Mr Richard Gilhooly, 
chief global bond strategist at 
Paribas Capital Markets in New 
York. 

Employment gains have aver- 
aged 206,000 a month in the first 
quarter of the year, well above 
the 135,000 registered in the sec- 
ond half of last year. But the rate 
of job growth is still much lower 
than in 1994 when signs of over- 
heating prompted the Fed to 
raise interest rates. 

The job gains were also 
uneven. Employment increased 
by 131,000 in service industries 

last month. But man ufacturing 
com panies shed 62,000 jobs: Only 
half of these losses stemmed from 
a strike at General Motors, sug- 
gesting many manufa cturin g 
companies are still facing slug- 
gish demand. 

The strong employment repot 
follows other signs of more rapid 
growth, including a 12 per cent 
gain in the index of leading indi- 
cators in February - the largest 
in 20 years. 


Russia to ease rouble restrictions Deutsche 


Continued from Page l 

their full income. Mr Vladimir 
Panskov. Finance minister, had 
said tax revenues were falling 
worrying!}' below target, ham- 
pering the government’s plans to 
increase spending in the run-up 
to the election. 

Mr Yeltsin said the overall tax 
burden would be reduced to 
encourage higher levels of disclo- 
sure and that a single tax an 
capital-related incomes would be 
introduced. 

The distinctions between fed- 
eral. regional and local taxes 


would be clarified, Mr Yeltsin 
said. In order to improve predict- 
ability and stability, basic taxes 
would not be altered more' than 
once a year. 

The Russian president also 
outlined measures to stimulate 
investment in the agricultural 
and Indnstrlal sectors by provid- 
ing tax breaks for banks and 
insurance companies which are 
active in this field. 

Russia's reformers took heart 
from the plans to reform the tax 
and currency regimes. 

But they expressed alarm that 
tbe prosecutor general’s office 


was considering criminal pro- 
ceedings against Mr Peter Mosto- 
voi, who beads the federal bank- 
ruptcy committee, and Mr Alfred 
Kokh, deputy chairman of the 
privatisation agency. 

• Mr Victor Orlov, head of Rus- 
sia’s state geology committee, 
announced yesterday that fresh 
diamond deposits of “global 
importance" had been found in 
tbe permafrost near the eastern 
Siberian city of Yakutia, a large 
diamond producing centre. 

“We have not had such a find 
in two decades of work,” Mr 
Orlov said. 


Continued from Page 1 

and secondary market trading in 
equities, Mr McLelland said. 

Deutsche Morgan Grenfell has 
been attempting to draw together 
its range of capital markets and 
advisory businesses in tbe US in 
recent months, to try to provide 
the platform for an integrated 
investment bank which could one 
day rival the best US houses. 

But Mr McLelland said Mr 
Quattnme's group would retain a 
large degree of autonomy. They 
will be based in Menlo Park, Cal- 
ifornia and operate as a separate 
industry group inside DMG. 


Europe today 

Easterly winds will result in milder 
conditions over much oi the continent 
Eastern Europe in particular will have plenty 
of sunshine with temperatures nsmg to IOC - 
15C. Germany, the Benelux and the British 
Isles will have sunny spells with some cloud. 
Northern France will be cloudy, but the 
south will be mainly' sunny with maximum 
temperatures between 15C and 20C. Spain 
and Portugal will be mild but showers are 
possible. The Alps and northern Italy will 
have showers, but further south it will 
remain dry. An area of low pressure will 
produce unstable and cool conditions over 
the Balkans and western Turkey . 

Five-day forecast 

During the Easter period it will remain dry 
with sunny periods over most of Europe. 
These conditions will continue as high 
pressure develops from Russia to live British 
Isles. The Mediterranean, however, will have 
occasional showers with maximum 
temperatures between 14C and 20C. During 
next week, a cold air mass will spread into 
northern and eastern Europe. 


TODAY'S TEMPERATURES 


• « -v..v 


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Situation at 12 GMT. remoeratoras maximum tor day. Forecasts by Mateo Cansuti of the M utf wrfands 



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Cardiff 

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Algiers 

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Bermuda 

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Glasgow 

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Manila 

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S. Frees 

sun 

25 

Amsterdam 

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Next week’s top-level British 
Telecommunications delegation to Bei- 
jing underlines the vital role China 
will play in any marriage between the 
company and Cable and Wireless. 
Even if the mooted reverse takeover of 
BT by C&IV technically gets round the 
need for Chinese government 
approval. BT would be irresponsible to 
proceed without a formal blessing. 
C&Ws 57.5 per cent stake in Hong- 
kong Telecom is by far its most valu- 
able asset. Irritating Beijing in 
advance of next year’s handover of 
sovereignty in Hong Kong would risk 
a harsher regulatory regime for Hong- 
kong Telecom: the merged group 
might also be cut out of opportunities 
to expand in mainland Cbi na 

While it is impossible to sec- 
ond-guess Chinese policy, it should be 
in Beijing's interests to bless the mar- 
riage. True, the inclusion of “British" 
in HTs nam e hardly helps, given the 
strains between China and Britain - 
though that will not be a problem if 
the merged group keeps C&Ws name. 
The combined group would have a 
global reach and financial muscle for 
greater than the current C&W. That 
should appeal to a China desperately 
trying to modernise its telecoms. 

Beijing can, of course, be expected 
to extract concessions in exchange for 
approval - perhaps forcing C&W to 
sell some of its Hongkong Telecom 
stake to the Chinese Ministry of Post 
and Telecoms. But If Beijing had a 
bigger stake in Hongkong Telecom's 
success, that might be good for a 
merged BT/C&W. Negotiating with 
China could take time, so BT should 
insist that any deal with C&W is con- 
tingent on Beijing’s approval Other- 
wise what is seen as the jewel in 
C&Ws crown could end up as paste. 

Telecoms regulation 

BT shareholders must be satisfied 
that C&Ws Hongkong business is a 
genuine jewel if they are to feel happy 
about a merger. But equally C&W 
shareholders will have to be reassured 
that BT’s core UK business is not 
about to be savaged by Mr Don 
Cmickshank, its regulator, who is In 
the midst of reviewing how fast the 
company should cut its prices. IT BT 
cannot give C&W shareholders com- 
fort about future regulation, they will 
demand a risk premium. 

Providing reassurance will be 
tricky. Tbe simplest way of ending the 
uncertainty would be for BT to reach 
a quick deal with its regulator - and 
not force a lengthy reference to the 
Monopolies and Mergers Commission. 
Unfortunately, Mr Cruickshank would 
then have BT over a barrel. And since 


FT-SE Eurotrack 200: 

1693.9 f+8.5) 


Cable & Wireless 

Martcet capttafeatkjn minus value of KB stake 
In Hongkaos Tetooom f£bn} 

2L5 — : — f 



1084 05 98 

Source. FT Bffltl 

he wants to cut BTs operating cash 
flow by £lbn-£L3bn a year, accepting 
his terms would be painful 

Another solution would be for C&W 
shareholders to be paid mainly in cash 
rather than in the form of shares in 
the merged company - in which case 
they would no longer have to worry 
how BT fared with the regulator. 
There is already a proposal to pay 
C&W shareholders a £4bn-£6bn special 
dividend as part of a merger - or 
almost half the total consideration. 

Given that the combined entity would 
have an “enterprise value” (see accom- 
panying note) of £38bn and little debt 
it could probably finance a pay-out 
twice as big as that The snag is that 
gearing up would cut BT’s cost of capi- 
tal, because debt Is cheaper than 
equity; and that would play into the 
hands of the regulator, who might feel 
Justified in pressing for a tougher 
price regime. BT will have to be pretty 
deft to juggle both C&W and Mr 
Cruickshank simultaneously. 

Real interest rates 

Thanks to the pronounced change of 
mood in the world’s bond markets, 
confirmed by yesterday's further 
sharp falls in New York, real 
long-tom Interest rates are creeping 
up a gain. Oven that real rates still 
lock fairly low by the s tandar ds of the 
last decade - If not the 1960s or 1970s 
- an upwards bounce is not surpris- 
ing. But for businesses across the 
industrialised world, the resulting rise 
In the cost of capital is bad news. 

What would help? The most obvious 
answer is that governments should do 
more to build anti-inflationary credi- 
bility. But doubts about inflation are 
only part of the problem; underlying 
real rates appear to be rising too. In 
the end. these are detammed by sup- 


ply and dcmaim for capital So encour- 
aging savings would help. Since so 
many people have not put away 
enough for their old age. this ought to 
be easier than it sounds. 

But in practice, the real problem has 
not so much been a shortage of private 
savings but that too much of them 
have been eaten up to fund govern:' 
raent deficits. For real rates to come 
down, deficits will have to be cut. For- 
tunately, in Europe, the Maastricht 
treaty conditions are forcing them 
down. Meanwhile in the US, tbe 
Republican party is doing its bit 

Even so. the grounds for optimism 
remain sparse. The problem is that 
open capital markets make real rates 
much less localised: good news in 
west could easily be offset by a bal-f 
loonlng deficit in Japan. The likeli- 
hood is always that somewhere in the 
world, politicians will be succumbing 
to the temptation to spend too much. 

Enterprise value 

"Enterprise value" Is a term increas- 
ingly bandied about in financial cir- 
cles. Enterprise value - technically 
the sura of a company's market capi- 
talisation and borrowings - is espe- 
cially useful in corporate finance. For 
example, when Granada acquired 
Forte, the full cost was not the head- 
line figure of £3.9bu but almost £5bn 
once Forte's debt was included. Simi- 
larly, in the forthcoming flotation of 
the UK’s Railtrack the government 
should be interested in enterprise 
value; the total proceeds will be the 
estimated market capitalisation of 
£1.5bn plus the £550m of borrowings it 
has lumbered Railtrack with. 

Enterprise value is effectively a 
measure of the underlying business 
irrespective of its capital structure. 
That said, it is not independent of 
capital structure. Often, loading up 
with debt does not cut market capital- 
isation on a one-for-one basis, so gear* 
ing up can boost enterprise value. 

The concept is not only useful in 
corporate finan ce t ransac tions; it can 
also help investors measure compa- 
nies. Using it as a multiple of operat- 
ing cash flow, or sales, can be an alter- 
native to more traditional yardsticks 
such as price/earnings ratios. This is 
tile case in cross-border comparisons 
because it ignores different accounting 
and tax treatments - and where com 
panles are not yet making profits, 
such as recently-floated mobile phone 
operator Orange. Relating a compa- 
ny’s borrowings to its enterprise value 
may be more helpful than looking at 
traditional gearing, since balance 
sheets no longer give much of on indi- 
cation of corporate worth. 


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